A Day In The Life

My sister wrote a cute post about her days at home as a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) of twins. She prefaced that the blog was mostly for "her" and not super interesting to the general public, so I'll do the same thing. However, I never blog anymore, so there isn't a huge risk that this post will go viral with all my followers!

I want to remember these crazy day, because I know for a fact that while they seem long right now, they will be gone in a flash! So please feel no need to read further if you don't want, but here it goes...a day in my life of a SAHM of two toddler boys. Max 2, and Levi 15 months. Note: this is the ideal/normal day. We still have wacky late nights, tantrums, early morning, illness, and other toddler drama.

Right now Max gets up anywhere between 7-9. Not to mention the almost guaranteed new-found night waking. He just appears by my bedside requesting things like water, cheese sticks, or wants to get dressed for school...at 2 am. I'm still adjusting to that. Why he can't go to the daddy side of the bed I just don't understand. Hoping the more used to his "big boy bed" he gets, the less he will get up.

(handsome little man)

Anyway, Max gets up around 8 am on an average day. He crawls in my bed, and I try and pry my eyes opened. It doesn't matter how much sleep I get the night before, I struggle to wake up. He always grabs my phone and swiftly navigates to the "Max" folder and starts playing his little games. More often than not, I am drenched by his soaked through the pajamas nighttime diaper as he crawls over the top of my body. I tiptoe down the hall to grab a diaper and change of clothes, and go back and get Max dressed in clean comfy clothes or new jammies. I make coffee, and we sit in my bed and have our drinks (definitely one of the best parts of the day). He always wants chocolate milk and a banana. He can be super opinionated about his show preferences and this is becoming a problem. I am trying to gently steer him away from morning shows so we can avoid the tantrums and entitlement i'm starting to see. We're having a lot of fits first thing in the morning lately. He is very calm in the morning though, which it great!

(our little morning ritual)

After we both wake up a little bit, Levi isn't usually far behind, but is definitely becoming my late riser. He is usually up between 8:30 am and as late at 10:30 am sometimes! Some morning there is the very rare 7:30, so I never really know. He wakes up starving (as would anyone who sleeps 14 hours) and wants his bottle in his room the second he gets up. Max usually follows behind me, and we go greet our jolly little man who will be jumping up and down grinning ear to ear as we walk in.

(another handsome little man)

After his bottle, I change his soaked through the pajamas nighttime diaper and make breakfast. Sometimes Levi runs off and plays with Max, but a lot of times wants to be right at my feet screaming for me to pick him up. A theme we carry throughout the day. We have oatmeal and fruit a lot, and it always looks like this: I make a huge triple portion for all 3 of us. Levi eats his, finishes mine, eats all of his fruit, and Max's. Max sits there typically refusing to eat anything, and I bribe him bite by bite, until he forgets he decided not to like his favorite breakfast, and finishes his bowl. If there is anything left over Levi will point and grunt to make sure he can get the scraps. When I give it to him he yells "uh oh" and dumps it behind the shutters right behind his highchair. His trademark move.

(little mess maker)

If we don't have anything going on we will usually go play on the back patio, and I will reheat my cold coffee and peruse a book, my bible, or phone for a few minutes until someone wanders over to me, and ill engage in whatever that are doing. Some days they really do play so well together, other days I am breaking up screaming matches, and tearing them off each other all day. The coffee cup is really very telling of the morning. If I finish it, the morning was tame. If the weather is nice we all go play in the back yard, and always end up reading books and doing puzzles in Max's room. They LOVE trashing Max's room.

(it was soo beautiful outside last week)

(pure joy...oh to be two)

On Tuesday and Thursday Max has school from 9-1:30, so on those days we are always scrambling out the door, and he is usually late. Sad but true.

Sometimes we don't even finish "breakfast" around here until 11 am. Max was just like Levi at this age, sleeping in, and just generally starting everything later than the normal baby his age. I have noticed this happening a lot more since Max has been on Christmas break. I think we will all be back to real life once school boots us out the door earlier. I don't mind it though. We try and keep a little schedule, but are definitely pretty flexible, and every day looks a little different.

From about 11-1:30 it's the usual playtime, clean up, diaper change, water refill, bonked head, snotty nose wipe, occasional play date, lunch outing, visit to Mimi's house--or whatever we had planned for the afternoon. School days, we are rushing to pick Max up before Levi falls asleep in the car.

Around 1:30 Levi goes down for his nap. Typically no fuss, sleeps for 2+ hours. Max is another story. We have struggled for some months now trying to figure out what to do with his nap. He still needs it some days, especially when he's up really early, but if he does nap we are lucky to get him in bed before 11 pm. Doesn't matter if he sleep 30 minutes or 3 hours. Today for example he was exhausted from New Years so I let him nap, and he slept for 3.5 hours. He didn't fall asleep tonight until 11:15.

(rest time buddy)

Anyway, usually he curls up on the couch for rest-time/lunch and I keep him sitting still while Levi naps. I force myself to pick up the most pressing matters like the oatmeal caked in the window, and do dishes or whatever else. Sometimes I close me and Max in my room, and pretend I don't see anything that needs to be done :) we snuggle up and watch a movie. Right now he is obsessed with Up, and we have watched it every days this week during rest time.

Levi wakes up right about when Cody is getting home, and we start "Second Shift" as I like to call it. Sometimes the crankiest shift of the day. Max is way over tired, and the both get super buzzed that Cody is home. Levi always wants me to carry him around, which makes it hard to make dinner, but so much easier than listening to him scream. He is quite the mamma's's boy. Max starts begging for his paci which he isn't allowed to have until bed, and we fight that battle for a few hours. Poor guy is obsessed. We try and sit down for dinner around 6/7ish which is usually always hilarious and stressful at the same time because Levi throws everything on the floor, and Max takes quite a bit of time to warm up to whatever I made. Sometimes we just feed them chicken nuggets or mac n cheese, and wait until they are in bed to have our dinner so we can enjoy! Judge if you will.

(second-shift in full effect and still in jammies)

On particularly grumpy nights we load up the whole gang and go out to eat, or take a picnic to the park. This is somehow easier, and they eat better and are happier in restaurants. Go figure. Easier, unless of course Max falls asleep in the car, and we face the prospect of him NEVER going to sleep at bedtime.

(paci stolen right out of Levi's mouth, and off to sleep he went)

Depending on how late Levi naps, he usually gets in bed around 8, but it can be as late as 9:30. If Max doesn't nap he is always out by 8 and sometimes as early as 7. We get those suckers in bed, and relax and just hang out. We have a terrible habit of staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning (crazy I know), but when you often don't get your toddler in bed until close to midnight, the night can get away from you!

(partaaaay at 2am)

So there is the day! Our big ticket items we are trying to master/focus on right now are discipline (Max), and bedtime (Max). Oh yeah, and weaning off of the paci (Max) and potty training (Max) Hmmm, does anyone see a trend here? Levi does throw all his food on the floor, and loves to slap people in the face, so don't think he's perfect or anything :)

**oh and how can I forgot! I babysit my little nieces Nora and Zoe on Monday afternoons. Aka, Zoester, and Norten**

That's the day. A very blessed one. The end.