A Day in the Life

This post will chronicle what a day in my life (Tuesday, May 26th to be exact) looks like right now with a 2 and 4.5 year old.The last time I wrote one of these posts was last August {HERE}.

My day started with Derek's alarm clock going off on 4:30. I'm sure he kissed me goodbye as he left for work as he always does, but I have no recollection of it. ;)  The next thing I know, it's 5:50 and my alarm is going off. I hit snooze and then at 6, I slowly open my eyes and grab my phone and play around on it for a few minutes before finally dragging myself out of bed at 6:10 for my shower. About two months ago, I deleted my Facebook & blog reading apps from my phone so I would stop wasting time on them throughout the day and in bed--I had a bad habit of laying in bed too long in the mornings playing around on FB or reading blogs in bed at night before falling asleep. Anyhow, I've somehow found other ways to waste time in the mornings on my phone (checking weather, email), but at least it's less time wasted than before! ;)

By 6:30, I'm out of the shower & realize that Shelby's light is already on in her room. That got my butt in gear! I quickly get dressed, put on makeup, and fix my hair and am "officially" ready to begin the day by 6:45ish. Shelby hasn't come downstairs yet, so I quickly start tackling a few items on my to-do list--putting away dishes, putting mail on hold for our trip next month, re-scheduling our next shipment date for Amazon Subscribe & Save, and then purging a few items in our kitchen drawers & organizing a bit. I was moving a mile a minute b/c I kept thinking Shelby would be downstairs any minute since 7:00 is the time we allow her to come downstairs. But it wasn't until 7:30 that I heard her bounding down the stairs insisting that I come up to her room to see her creation. Here is what awaited me:

We usually do milk & stories in the living room when Shelby comes downstairs in the mornings, but since I was up in her room she asked if we could do it in her room. After a couple stories, Shelby helped me fold the girls' laundry.

By now, it was 8:00 and we heard Hadley starting to stir so we went to get her up for breakfast.

Hadley always wants to bring all of her "friends" out of her crib with her. When I went to get her up
on this morning, she said "Me have too much in my hands!" ;)

Deciding on which "friends" are coming downstairs with them for breakfast ;)

After a quick diaper change, hair ties in their hair (Hadley demaned pigtails), and way too much time spent agonizing over which friends are coming downstairs with us, we are all downstairs by 8:15. The girls decide to play tag while I prep breakfast, and we're all sitting down to eat by 8:21.

We eat our breakfast (cereal & fruit) and read our Bible story for the day, and we're all finished up by 8:42. Shelby decides to play a new game she recently created--"market"--which I detest. Playing market essentially means she sets up a market in our bedroom for customers, aka she puts everything she can find our bed to sell. Super fun. ;)  I do my best to get the kitchen cleaned up while the market is being set up, but it doesn't go quickly! Hadley immediately requests Anna & Elsa dolls from her crib, so I run upstairs to grab them to avoid a tantrum. I finally get the kitchen cleaned up by 8:52, and I can already tell I'm feeling annoyed by the whole market situation. This is our first day back in our normal routine after having Derek home with us for 4 days, and our first days back on our own are always a little off. I decide to try to wrap up the market quickly to avoid any squabbles--pretend games are so hard with kids at different ages. Shelby will get so frustrated when Hadley doesn't quite understand what the game is, but Hadley desperately wants to play the game. It's exhausting really. I finally convince them to clean it up, but I end up having a mini tantrum myself b/c Shelby isn't moving fast enough for my liking and Hadley starts getting super whiny. I end up saying in a really exasperated tone, "Hadley please just clean up & stop whining!" (We are working hard with her right now to not whine b/c she is fully capable of expressing herself in complete sentences, she just doesn't always want to, ha!) She complied with my request and turned around to put a toy away before looking back at me and saying: "Me just talking to you, me not whining!" ;)  Shelby quickly reminds me that I should have had more self-control (something we're working on with her), so we all hug and take a minute to apologize for our attitudes before we all go upstairs to get dressed in much better moods. Thankfully, the rest of our day goes much smoother! :)

Once the girls are dressed, Shelby requests to text Daddy while Hadley helps me pack our picnic lunch for the park, aka she gets to sit on the counter which is all she ever wants in life! ;)  We are finally on our way out the door to meet the Goins at the park at 10:30. This is the only picture I remembered to snap of the kids while we were there:

Adam & Shelby hard at work creating "yucky goo" in the water fountain ;)

The kids had a great time running around & playing while Angela and I tried to sneak in a few conversations here and there. ;)  The highlight of the outing was when Will tried to sample a few mushrooms that were growing on the ground by the playground. ;)  After a couple panicked calls to our hubbies and a few google searches, Derek got us the number to poison control and they assured us it was okay! We got home around 1:00 and quickly got ready for naps. I had Hadley down by 1:15 and Shelby down by 1:30. I came downstairs & ate my lunch while looking at Facebook and checking email. I finally forced myself to get up and do the dishes at 2:15. At this point, it was clear that Shelby was deciding to boycott her nap for the day. (Ever since her last cold a couple weeks ago, Shelby's naps have been hit & miss. She is typically a GREAT napper but can't nap at all when she's sick. So while she was sick, she got in the habit of getting out of bed to read during naptime, which has been a hard habit to break! Today I threatened to put her in the pack n play for nap if she didn't stay in bed, she fell right asleep! If she will let herself stay in bed, she will almost always take a good solid nap.) Since I knew my quiet time wouldn't last, I took advantage of it and searched for new dessert recipes on Pinterest & read some of my book before Shelby came down at 3:25. She came down complaining of being hungry and upset that our pool was closed for the day, but it was nothing that milk & stories couldn't fix! :)

After a few stories and then a snack, we folded another load of laundry together. Shelby requested to text Daddy again, and I quickly complied with her request so I could get the laundry put away, trash taken out, and get us ready to get out the door for soccer at 5.

At 4:15, Hadley was still completely sacked out from the park and I hated having to wake her up for soccer. She was NOT ready to be awake!

After a quick diaper change, we rushed downstairs to put shoes on and then loaded up in the car. We just discovered that Hadley can climb in the car and get in her carseat herself this weekend, so the girls were anxious to get to the car for her to climb in by herself again. No matter how many times we've done it, she always yells in the cutest voice "Me did it MYSELF!"

We got to soccer a few minutes early & Shelby spotted a ladybug!

Hadley snacks almost the entire time Shelby plays soccer ;)

They had a little end of the season ceremony at the end of the session.

High five from Coach!

Shelby & Coach Jorge

We got home at 6:00 from soccer, and Derek had gotten home about 5 minutes earlier than us. I'm always thankful when he beats us home on soccer nights b/c he's able to get dinner started (just leftover pizza on this night!) and the girls are so excited to see him it keeps the hunger/fatigue at bay for a bit! As we eat, the main topics of discussion on this night are Daddy's patients (as always!) and Will eating mushrooms. ;)

I had every intention of rushing the girls straight up for baths after dinner b/c when Shelby doesn't nap, she's usually falling apart by this point. But for whatever reason, the girls are in the best moods and decide to play "roly poly" (rolling themselves back and forth across the living room floor) while we clean up from dinner.

At 6:30, I convince the girls to go upstairs for baths while Derek hangs back fo finish up the last of the dishes (our dishwasher has been out of comission, so everything has to be washed by hand) and set up the Roomba. Derek gets upstairs by the time the girls are getting out of the tub, and we always divide and counquer for getting teeth and hair brushed, lotion, and PJS--Derek takes Hadley, and I take Shelby. Clean, happy girls after baths!

I read Shelby her bedtime stories, and we then share our happy/sad parts of the day before last-minute hugs and kisses and then lights out at 7:15. Since Hadley took a long nap on this day, she gets to stay up late for playtime with Daddy.

Usually Derek puts Hadley to bed at night, but I offer to do it since Shelby is already asleep and so he can jump in the shower to get a jump-start on his studying. I get Hadley down by 8 and get in the shower just as Derek is starting his studying. I'm out of the shower by 8:30 and get busy swiffering the floors & putting away the dishes from dinner. Just as I'm finishing up 8:45, Derek finishes up his studying. I ask his opinion on meal ideas for the rest of the week and then convince him to help me make some pumpkin bread. For some reason, I've been craving it lately but there is nothing I hate more than trying to decide when the bread is ready to come out of the oven (anything that is subjective in any way, shape, or form is my worst nightmare), so I love to bake bread when Derek is home so he can be the judge of when it's done. ;)

By 9:30, we're on the couch ready to watch an episode of Shark Tank with raw break n bake cookie dough to eat as our dessert. Are we the only people who buy cookie dough just to eat the dough?! :)  By the time Shark Tank is over, the bread still isn't quite done yet so we watch The O'Reilly Factor for a bit. By 10:45, the bread is finally cool enough to get out of the pans so we can go get ready for bed, and lights are out by 11!

And there you have it, that's our day!