(Stay at Home) Day in the Life - Spring(??) 13'

Last spring was the first time I participated in the Day in the Life series with Navigating the Mothership! I thought it would be fun to follow along for a whole Week in the Life but I just didn't have the ambition to follow through with it. I am doing 2 days -- one during my stay at home days, and one on a work day.

Monday, April 22
Charlie - a young 3 | Levi - 14 months

I wake up at 5:45 and when I check the time I see that an alert that a winter storm warning has been issued. again. Go back to sleep, annoyed. Around 6:15 I hear Charlie get up. He almost always wants me to read to him at night which is fine because in the morning he almost always wants Erik to get up with him. I feel like I'm getting the better end of the deal. I hear them go get Levi and doze off again for a bit. Erik gets them pancakes for breakfast. I roll out of bed just before 7 and decide to take a shower since everyone is otherwise occupied. I then start the diaper laundry and relieve Erik so he can go up to his office and start working.

We head upstairs too, to get dressed and change the dates on Charlie's calendar. {I had been looking to make something like this forever, and then found THIS and pretty much copied it exactly}. The one thing I did not do was figure out where I wanted to hang it first. When I was finished with the project I found the place I wanted to hang it and of course it's too big. So for now it's in Charlie's room. The dark blue pocket is the weather. Note the snow. On April 22. Also, we have winter and spring up for the seasons because there is what it is technically and then reality. On Sundays we get out the dates for the week to avoid digging for them. We also move the pink sticks around which are to note daycare days. So far it has worked really well to help distinguish the days. The only problem is that Charlie wants EVERY DAY to be 6 because it's his favorite number. So getting him to change it after 6, 16, 26 is a challenge. I am considering changing out the seasons to something like letters and then change out the letter each week and focus on that letter for the week.

I have all of Levi's summer (and really next winter's clothes) alls orted out so if it could just warm up so he could wear them, that would be great. He's growing out of a lot of his wintery stuff. 

I go to restart the washer & then run to Levi's room to put a few clothes away. In the 10 seconds I am gone, I hear a funny noise & come back to see that Levi has opened the washer pedestal & dumped out the rest of the bag of Rockin Green on the floor. Erik assists me in cleaning up this mess.

We go down stairs and play stretch. Don't know what stretch is? Well, me neither. But I think it's like tug of war. Last weekend, Charlie told me he needed some rope (this isn't the first time). Imagine his excitement when Erik found this rope in the shed that came with his swing set. It's even a black rope which is even better. I decide to get some breakfast and as soon as I go in the kitchen and start making noise I have 2 little boys at my feet who are STARVING. So ensues breakfast #2. Charlie & I have cereal. Levi has a piece of peanut butter toast. I clean up the kitchen a bit & look over my shopping list and then we head into town for groceries. Charlie pushes his little cart around the store and only runs into me twice. He asks me about 100 times, "OH, do we need ____?" I answer "no" about 98 times. I don't mind taking them shopping as long as we go when the store isn't very busy, even though it takes a long time. The old people like watching Charlie do his thing. Levi falls asleep in the car so we take a little drive to check out the corn pile, which is now gone.

LOL winter...

Takes off shoes, socks & hat every time we get in the car

Just as we are pulling in, Erik is running out the door because he got a last minute chiropractor appt.  It is now 10:45 and Charlie asks to watch Jake so I turn that on for him, put away the groceries and get lunch ready. We have lunch (leftovers for everyone and apples).

After lunch, I start yet another load of laundry and then we go on the ultimate field trip - to the basement!! Last night Erik browned a package of hamburger & pork so we saved 1/2 of it to make chili. I put most of the stuff in the crock pot last night and just need to add a few more things. We have to go down to the basement to get more tomatoes. For some reason Charlie loves going down there, as long as I hold his hands on the steps as he says "carefully, carefully" the entire way down. I also have to carry Levi so I have 0 free hands to actually carry up stuff. We get our tomatoes and Charlie gets some peaches for later. 

I bought a big bag of rice at the store so I dump it into a pan  & add some noodles and give the boys some little tractors, measuring spoons, plastic eggs, etc. This is something I have been wanting to do forever and just haven't done but it keeps them both entertained for 45 minutes. Wish I would have done it before day 200 of winter. I get the chili going & clean up the kitchen some more.

I finally drag Charlie away from the rice bin around 1 and get him ready for his nap. We read books and as we are doing that, Levi gets a hold of Charlie's Jake card and rips the treasure chest off. Oh the horror. This is his Valentine's day card and we read it before every nap/bed. For awhile he was taking it to daycare but seems to have forgotten about that. Erik takes a roll of packaging tape all over the entire thing so it's almost as good as new since this isn't the first time Levi has gotten his little paws on it. Grocery shopping wore Charlie out so he's out quickly. I change Levi again & also change his shirt because he is drooling a ton today due to his last 2 teeth & a little cold. He goes down about 1:45.

All fixed up

I relax for a few minutes but don't start anything major because Levi is a cat napper. Yup, he's back up by 2:30. He's done napping & in a good mood so we play for awhile.

Loves playing "tunnel"

Charlie gets up around 3:45 and the boys sit down for a snack. I bought these single serving greek yogurts and they are obsessed with them. Levi gets ticked when he can't get any more. Upon devouring the yogurts, they commence with the rice playing. A skidloader becomes involved and it starts to get messy. Charlie alerts me every time Levi takes some steps on his own, "MOM HE'S WALKING!!!" and then to Levi, "WOW, you did it! You were walking all be yourself!"

4:30 - Erik is done with work. Charlie warns him to not get scared when he comes down and sees the mess. Levi is getting cranky (that happens when he naps for an hour all day) so we decide to run in to Target and find something more suitable for the newly discovered & messy activity. This isn't really necessary to do but we are all anxious to get out of the house for a bit. Of course since it is Target we manage to find $50+ worth of stuff that we "need".

We get back home around 5:30 and quickly make some grilled cheese to go with the chili. We put some turkey in with the boys' grilled cheese because I'm not sure if they will eat the chili. We also have strawberries with our supper. About half way through supper, I realize I never added chili powder so it's really not that "hot". Oh well, it was still good. Erik takes the boys to give them baths and I start cleaning up the kitchen. There are a ton of leftovers so I throw a container full in the freezer & put the rest in the fridge. I manage to get the dishwasher emptied again & do a few dishes & wipe down counters and such before Erik brings Levi back. I take him & get him dressed, and get Charlie his vitamins when he comes back down.

Levi is pretty tired by this point so I take him upstairs, feed him & put him down with no problems. Now that he is nursing just before bed it pretty much knocks him out & I love the quiet down time with him. Back when I first did Day in the Life last spring, I would have laughed and laughed at the thought of still successfully nursing him a year later since it was rough going for us back then and I changed my mind about every hour. I'm sure we will totally wean soon, but for now this is working for us so I'm just going with it.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Charlie is working on puzzles. He has 4 big puzzles that he likes to do so he gets them all put together. He also has to do his chores so he & Erik bale all of the blocks into the wagon & he feeds the cows with his skidloader. I take Charlie to bed & read to him. He has recently broken his night time book routine, where we read the same 6 books for about 6 months. Tonight we read 2 Cat in the Hat books and Ten Friendly Fish. Of course he asks to read them multiple times but I say no since I've already read them before nap, too. I tell him I will read one other book & to get back at me for not doing what he wants he picks out this annoying book called "Pretend" that we got from the United Way free book program. He knows I always avoid that book because I don't like it (for no real reason, I just don't like it). I can see the "gotcha" look in his eye so I give in and read it. Then we have to read his Valentines Day card & he goes to bed. He told me he didn't want to go to the bathroom so I didn't have him try (note from later: we should have tried!). But he goes down great too.

Back downstairs, we watch The Voice and that's about it. There's not much on after that, so Erik takes care of the dog & cat and we head to bed and do some reading. I search for a new book on my phone but can't make a decision so after 1/2 hour of looking around I just give up and go to sleep.

We had a great day. Charlie was in a good mood and had made it the whole day without having any major meltdowns which makes my stay at home days even better!