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| Oh, nothing much. Just playing. |
When presented with the opportunity to revisit this subject, I was more than delighted to oblige. My last “day in the life of” post was a huge hit. I couldn’t believe how supportive everyone was. At that time, my littlest ones were just three months old but with them being two months premature, we were stuck in the newborn Groundhog’s Day, a constant repeat day in and out of the same thing with exhaustion growing.
Now today, we are just barely over one year later. My oldest is three going on teenage-hood. My youngest two are almost 16 months. They’ve caught up on nearly all their prematurity delays. The largest portion of our medical concerns has been addressed and is no longer affecting our daily lives. The walk everywhere and are quickly increasing their word capacity for talking too.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that life is easy but then again, I have no complaints. I live a very happy and beautiful life. So, here’s my norm:
5:45 a.m. Husband’s alarm goes off for work. Nothing has changed. I still groan every time I hear it. On the rare occasion, I manage to not hear it at all. Ooooo, those are the good days.
6:30 a.m. My alarm goes off. I toss and turn for a few minutes after hitting the snooze.
6:37 a.m. I crawl out of bed and measure a bowl of Honey Nut Rollin’ Oats for myself. I bring the cereal back into my bedroom and eat while I scan Facebook, Twitter and some of my favorite blogs from my phone.
6:51 a.m. I jump in the shower. I alternate days for washing and conditioning. Today was just conditioning so it went very quickly. I wash my face, finish up the essentials and hop back out. I dry off, put in my contacts, grab a couple q-tips and I’m on my way.
7:05 a.m. Now dressed in a comfy tee and yoga pants, I head into the nursery to wake the twins. I remove their Halo sleep sacks, change diapers, give them both their morning dose of baby Zantac and head into the kitchen. I pour milk into their sippy cups (we are *finally* bottle free, woohoo!) and cut up some fresh fruit for them. I add some plain Cheerios to their high chair trays and put some graham crackers and raisins down too. Breakfast is served.
7:20 a.m. I go in to wake up big sis. She HATES mornings. Any other day, she happily wakes up with the sunrise and bounces into my bedroom claiming its morning. But on school days, the days I need her up this early, she covers her eyes with a pillow and whines. I turn off her white noise and night light. I turn on the overhead light but keep it on about medium strength with the dimmer. I tell her, “five more minutes” and head into the bathroom to brush my hair. I yell out count-down warnings every minute.
7:25 a.m. Big sis is awake. She uses the bathroom and starts getting dressed in the outfit she picked out the night before. It does not match but she has followed the one rule: pants and long sleeves. Yes, there is a tank top and skirt layered on top but I just smile and go on. I make frequent checks on the babies still munching on breakfast in the kitchen. I lay out the coats and get her backpack ready. I also put my shoes on.
7:40 a.m. Teeth brushing time. I use a Suave apple scented detangle spray on the preschooler’s mangled lollipop stuck hair. She begs for earrings so we pick out a pair and put them in.
7:50 a.m. The alarm goes off on my phone signifying we need to head out. I clean up the babies, toss them in the living room, beg for everyone to cooperate and get shoes and coats on. I make two trips to the van to get everyone loaded in safely and off we go.
8:10 a.m. We arrive at school. I unpack the Kolcraft double umbrella stroller, place each twin in her spot and into the classroom we go. There is a morning routine of hanging up backpack, getting folders out, washing hands, signing in, and choosing a seat for breakfast. I chat casually with some other parents as she does her thing. I give her a goodbye kiss and head out.
8:30 a.m. Babies and I arrive back home. I unload the van with two more trips. The babes play while I clean up breakfast and switch a load of laundry. I finally sit down for about 10 minutes while they fight over my lap.
9:00 a.m. Morning nap time. They aren’t too keen on this mom-favored part of the day but I’m still trying to push it. I hear them chatting to each other as I get my laptop out to start working. I have a checklist of what needs to be done and scheduled to promote my blog work on various sites. I have a few business pieces I need to make outlines for also so I go ahead and get them done. In the background, I have last week’s 90210 (the new one on the CW, my guilty pleasure) on the TV.
10:50 a.m. Another alarm goes off meaning time to wrap up my work, get babies up and head back to school to pick up big sis. I change diapers, put coats on, two trips to the van and off we go.
11:10 a.m. We get to school; I head inside double stroller and all to sing a final finger wiggling goodbye song; sign out and race back to the van. My little angel is obsessed with leaving before the buses do. If we aren’t quick enough, she will literally scream bloody murder the entire drive home. Luckily, we win the race today (and most days).
11:30 a.m. Back home, two trips into the house to unpack. I grab the mail after setting down the second baby. Big sis has helped everyone get their coats off so I hang them up. I make three trips over the gate between the living room and the kitchen to get everyone ready for lunch. We make a boring cold lunch with fresh fruit, a sandwich, some crackers, cheese and of course fruit snacks. I give big sis a fiber gummy and her IBS meds since I forgot to do it this morning. She argues because she wants a pink gummy and of course, I didn’t read her mind correctly and tried to give her a red one.
12:00 p.m. With all the kids in the living room, I try to load the dishwasher, get lunch cleaned up, and switch laundry again. My clingy baby is throwing a fit so I wrap her to me using a comfy hip hold and try to sort some clothes. I finish and we go to play with her sisters. She doesn’t want to be put down so she stays wrapped. I try sitting on the couch but it’s a big mistake as the twins think the couch is some kind of jungle gym. Twin 1 wiggles enough to make me unwrap her which leads twin 2 to start crying because heaven forbid someone get an unfair amount of mommy time. Lily steals a book from twin 2 for absolutely no reason and throws a four minute long tantrum about it all the while baby is crying too over said lost book. That’s it: NAPTIME.
1:30 p.m. I get the babies settled for nap. I pop in a movie for big sis, Megamind is her poison today. We cuddle for a while and I try to embrace the quiet. It won’t last long. I get out some yarn to work on a crochet project and text my husband and best friend, check some emails, browse Facebook for a while, etc.
3:30 p.m. I bring some graham crackers into the living room for a snack and hand out sippy cups of water.
4:00 p.m. Daddy comes home and everyone screams with excitement. We discuss dinner plans and having realized we behaved all week with cooking at home and not buying any extras, we settle on Dairy Queen as a treat. I stay home with the kids as he runs out to get it.
4:30 p.m. I settle everyone in the kitchen, get drinks ready, get out the condiments and napkins, etc. I add some fresh fruit to the mix of fast food just to make myself feel slightly better about the choice. I give biggin her fiber gummy and IBS meds for a second time today.
5:30 p.m. Dinner has been devoured and cleaned up. Daddy and big sis are working on making oatmeal raisin cookies in the new Kitchen aid mixer we treated ourselves to with our tax refund. The twins are playing nicely on the floor as long as I am sitting close by. For once, they aren’t attacking me but the second I try to stand up they freak out.
7:00 p.m. After all of us taste test the cookies, its bedtime. Babies get jammies on, another dose of meds. They drink a small soppy cup of milk before getting tucked in with their white noise on to drift off into Neverland.
7:30 p.m. Babies in bed, I plop on the couch after giving big sis hugs. She and daddy picked up all the toys so the living room is nice and organized again, peaceful. I listen as he tucks her in, giggles with her, and reads her stories.
8:00 p.m. It’s finally adult time. We enjoy our evening, normally paired with a snack of ice cream or popcorn, our two favorites. We watch a movie tonight but sometimes we just watch recorded TV.
10:00 p.m. It’s time for bed. I can barely keep my eyes open so we decide to finish the movie another night. It takes me 15 minutes or so to get ready for bed. We chat for just a few minutes once our heads hit the pillows.
10:30 p.m. ASLEEP
And just like last time I wrote one of these, I never imagined it would end up so long. I’ve tried to take things out but, sorry, this really is my day, long and full. I want to always be as honest as possible in my writing. So here it is: just a regular day in my house.
By the way, if you were thinking this seemed slightly less chaotic than you imagined it would be, you’re right. This was actually a good day!
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Tags: day in the life
