A Day in Our Life...November 2010

Back when Ethan was right at 1 year old, I did a "day in our life" post about what a typical day was like for us. I really liked taking pictures of all the "ordinary" things we do during the day. Sometimes I forget to capture the "small" moments in our day to day lives. I don't know what made me think of it, but I decided last week to document our day again...as it is right now.

6:00 am: Logan wakes up to eat. I feed him and put him back down in the crib to sleep, which he does immediately.

6:30 am: I go take a shower. If Logan wakes up any earlier, I usually go back to bed and take a shower later, but I knew Ethan would be waking up soon, so I took my opportunity to get clean.

7:30 am: I hear Ethan laughing and talking to himself in his room. He says, "oh, hi mommy," to me when I walk into his room. I change his diaper, get him dressed, and we both go get baby Logan, who is awake again now. Logan is all smiles when he gets up from bed or naps. We use that sleep positioner to keep him from rolling over a thousand times and waking himself up...he is in that rolling phase right now but can't roll himself back onto his tummy all the way yet.

8:00 am: Ethan goes to play with his toys and Logan plays on his play mat while I get breakfast ready for us. Ethan has Eggo waffles and a banana. Daddy joins us for breakfast too.

8:20 am: Ethan plays with his apple toy on the couch beside me while I feed Logan again. I want to give Logan a little snack before he goes back down for a nap. He usually eats every 3-4 hours these days. He only stays awake for about an hour before needing to go to sleep again. The "apple" (as Ethan calls it) is a great source of entertainment and learning...Ethan adores it and we take it with us everywhere (except church, because it is loud.)

8:40 am: Ethan goes with me to lay Logan down for his nap and then we go to the playroom for a few minutes before Casey leaves for work. Ethan plays with his cars and ramps. He also likes to draw with his crayons right now, but is only interested in drawing suns and animals.

8:45 am: Casey leaves for work. We still go out to the garage every day and say goodbye to him. Ethan waves and tells Casey, "good day!" (which means "have a good day.")

9:00 am: Ethan and I bake Memaw's brownies for Casey's potluck lunch at work tomorrow. (I did not set up this activity for the sake of this post...we really did have to make the brownies.)

9:05 am: We have to start over on the brownie batter...I went to the sink for .2 seconds to grab a towel to wipe my hands on and turned back around to see Ethan with a big smile...and about a cup and a half of extra sugar in the bowl! But we had a blast baking together. I scooped the ingredients and he dumped them into the bowl. Then he stirred the batter some and sampled a few chocolate chips along the way.

9:30: We put the brownies in the oven to bake, and while we are waiting, Ethan plays with his nativity set while I wash up some dishes, tidy the kitchen, and load the dishwasher.

10:00 am: The brownies come out of the oven and I join Ethan in the living room and we read almost all of the Christmas books we've just gotten out and also his Lightning McQueen book that has all sorts of buttons to push during the story.

10:30 am: We move into the office, where I open some mail and do a little filing while Ethan watches Thomas the Train on the computer...thanks to Netflix instantly streaming movies.

11:00 am: The dishwasher is done with it's (loud) cycle so Ethan helps me put the dishes away. He puts the pot lids back on the pots in the cabinet. He knows which one goes where because several months ago, playing with the pots and pans was a favorite activity of his. He also helps me put away the tupperware and lids...and he knows where they go too (for the same reason as the pots).

11:30 am: Ethan decides it is time to go outside for a while. He gets his shoes out and puts them on (his crocs). He goes down the slide and plays in the fort for a while.

12:00 pm: I get Ethan's lunch ready and then we hear Logan is awake. Ethan eats his lunch while I go get Logan. He has a turkey and cheese "quesadilla," an orange, and some blueberries...with milk. While Ethan is still eating, I feed Logan on the couch. Usually daddy comes home for lunch to eat with us, but today he has a lunch meeting.

12:45 pm: Ethan goes upstairs to take his nap. He takes a nap most days (about 2-2.5 hours long), but sometimes he refuses to sit still in his room long enough to fall asleep. There are no toys in his room to play with, but he will sometimes still occupy himself with talking, singing, and scurrying around his room to avoid falling asleep. This is one of those days.

1:00 pm: While we listen to Ethan not sleeping upstairs, Logan and I have a few moments together before his next nap. He smiles for me, which I love.

1:15 pm: I go put Logan down in his crib again and then go put Ethan back in bed and tell him it is time to sleep and/or rest...in bed. On the days that he doesn't sleep, I still have him stay in his room for a while. Sometimes he will fall asleep if I leave him in there, and sometimes we just both need the down time!

1:20 pm: Both boys are in their rooms. Both are quiet right now, but I think only one is actually asleep (Logan). But at least Ethan is in bed. He stays quiet (maybe asleep?) so I use this time to do work for my part time job, housework, edit photos, or read blogs. Today I edit some photos and do some entering in Quickbooks for my job.

3:00 pm: I hear Ethan finally pipe up so I go check on him. I am not sure if he slept or not...but he is not in a good mood! He either did not sleep long enough or he did not sleep at all. These photos are evidence that a good nap is still needed for our big 2.5 year old. Poor buddy!

3:10 pm: The tears are quickly dried as we head downstairs and he realizes he can play with his toys now. He plays with his character figurines from the Rudolph movie and has a snack of raisins and water. I continue working on the computer while he is occupied.

4:00 pm: We go outside to check the mail and that leads to a longer-than-expected outdoor outing. Ethan hunts for different kinds of leaves. He loves leaves. I follow him around with the camera, taking photos and looking at his collected leaves.

4:45 pm: We hear Logan on the monitor and go get him. He gets a turn in front of the camera with mommy, resulting in an out-of-focus photo. I feed him, and then he plays on his playmat while Ethan plays with his "felt pieces." They are the felt bugs, flowers, and other sundry items that go to his felt book. This is another toy that he absolutely loves.

5:30 pm: Ethan eats dinner and Logan is still going strong on the playmat. Ethan eats some plain pasta, green beans, and chicken. After he cleans his plate, he also gets some cinnamon bread...a favorite of his!

5:45 pm: After dinner, Ethan notices that I have Logan on his tummy in the living room and he is rolling over. So, he decides to show Logan how it's done! Then they get face-to-face and have a very cute brotherly conversation!

6:00 pm: We head upstairs for bath time. Both boys get washed and dried. And Ethan gets his teeth brushed, which he is much better about these days. He likes it when I count down from 20 using funny voices for each of the numbers. He laughs along the way and he knows that when I get to 1 (I count pretty slowly), then he's done!

6:30 pm: Now that everyone is clean, we go back downstairs. Daddy is home now and cuddles with both boys on the couch. He and Ethan watch a show (usually Dora or Umizoomi) while I go feed Logan in his room and put him down for the night. He goes to bed sometime between 6-7 every night.

6:45 pm: I go downstairs and get to work on dinner. Usually I will do some prep work while Ethan is eating dinner so I'm usually just doing the cooking at this point while Ethan and daddy finish their show.

7:00 pm: Daddy takes Ethan up to bed. He usually goes to bed around 7 every night, but especially on days when the nap doesn't happen. He and daddy say a prayer and Ethan mentions all the people in his life he is thankful for. Then they read a book and Ethan gets tucked into bed. While he avoids sleep during naptime on some days...every night he is great about going to sleep immediately. Even on days when he does take a long nap. He has to have his monkey, blanket and water, and then we usually don't hear a peep from him until the next morning.

7:30 pm: Casey and I sit down and eat our dinner together. Because of the time that Casey gets home from work, we don't have family dinners just yet, but almost every day we get to eat breakfast and lunch together as a family. But actually, Casey and I enjoy our dinners together...just us.

8:00 pm: We usually watch some TV together, or if there's nothing on and nothing recorded, we sometimes read, get on the computer, or do other things we want to do. I hardly ever "work" in the evenings unless I have to.

9:30 pm: I go to bed. I'm an early-to-bed person anyway, but since Logan is still not sleeping through the night (he is waking up once around 2-3am), I make it extra early! (UPDATE: It has taken me a week to get this post together with the photos and everything so now Logan IS sleeping through the night...twelve hours, in fact. So I might stay up a little bit later now, but not much!)