A Day in the life…

So if any of you have ever wondered what in the world a stay-at-home-mom does all day, this post is a small glimpse into that thing I call “daily life.”  This post was inspired by one of my best friends.  I was telling her how I feel like I have no time to get things done during the day, and she had commented that she wished that she could be a fly on the wall just to see what my days are like.  Well, wonder no more!  Thanks for the inspiration Cat! At least now when I wonder how I didn’t get anything accomplished, I can know (in detail)!   In fact, after writing this post, I’m thinking I may do a whole series of them!

8:27 a.m.– The baby wakes up.  Today was a good day!!! Although he went to bed late last night, he’s usually awake by 6:30 or 7, so this feels like a major SCORE!  I go get him out of his crib and nurse him on the couch while trying to catch up on my Facebook notifications from last night. Jedidiah finishes nursing, gets down and starts to play.

8:42 a.m.- Jedidiah wants his ball but we can’t find his ball.  He’s got HUNDREDS of balls but only three fit in his play table, somehow we can’t find any of these (Go figure). We both look for it for a few minutes. While I’m down on the floor looking under the couches, he jumps on top of me and “tackles” me. We play on the floor for a minute and Jedi laughs and giggles.  Then he finds a different ball and shows me where he found it. I proceed to tell him that that particular ball is too big for the play table. I hand him  a different light- up ball that he chases around the house for a few minutes.

8:47 a.m.- I need to change his diaper, so we go into his bedroom and buckle down for diaper change number 1.  He wants to strip off his pajamas so we take them off.  Clothing is optional at home during the day.

8:50 a.m.-We then go back out to the living room.  Jedidiah finds his little slippers, gifted to us by our ayi (our maid, God bless her soul) when we were in China.  He sits in my lap as I put them on.  He pulls off one of the dragon’s “whiskers” and hands it to me.  Then gets down, walks off and comes back with a “whisker” from his room that he’d pulled off yesterday (Lord knows where he found it… I can’t even believe he remembered that it existed!).  He then proceeds to pick out the rest of the “whiskers” and tries to put them back on the slippers in before handing them to me.  I explain that I cannot put them back on either.  Our dragons now look a little less fierce.

Before…

After…

8:55 a.m.- He realizes that he wants to eat REAL food, so I put him in his high chair and asked him what he he wanted.  This morning he wanted a banana.  I cut up his banana, gave it to him to eat and sat down.

9:00 a.m.-I see the cookies that I made yesterday sitting on the counter and decide to snap a picture for a Facebook or blog post that I’ll probably never get around to writing…

9:01 a.m.- I make my own breakfast.  Today’s menu consists of a bowl of granola- dry because I was out of almond milk.

9:05 a.m.- Jedediah throws his last chunk of banana. We don’t throw food and he knows it!  Jedidiah needs a consequence.  At our house, his consequence is being put in his crib and waiting there for a few minutes to “think about” what he just did (and cry).

9:07 a.m.- Mommy goes in and talk to Jedi about not throwing food (again). We change his diaper and take off his pajamas, then come out and I make him pick up the banana off the ground and throw it away.

9:10 a.m.- Mommy sits back down at the table to try to finish her breakfast.  However, Jedediah is trying to climb in her lap and is yanking at her shirt again, saying… “ate, ate!” (Eat, eat).  I latch him on in the hopes that I can finish my breakfast in peace. He wants to get down but only a few moments later… Jedidiah, what do you want!?!  He wanders off.  Ahhhh, peace… Oh, wait…  Uh-oh, its gotten far too quiet… Mommy wonders where he is and what he’s gotten into.

9:12 a.m.- Mommy goes back to look for him. He’s not in the bathroom (which is a good thing- I forgot to close the door), then proceeds to close the bathroom door. I quickly glanced in his bedroom and the office before finding him cutely playing on the pillows in our room. I stay with him a moment and then he cutely lays on a pile of soft clothes in the closet. I decide that the moment is “picture worthy” so I rush to the front room to get my camera. I grab my camera and quietly walk back hoping he’s still in the same adorable position. I get there and he’s not.  He’s gone to the pillows again. But he’s so cute! I try to snap a picture but forget that the flash isn’t on, so it’s blurry (dangit). I lay down with him on the pillows and we play together for a moment.  I snap one decent picture.

9:28 a.m.- Then he goes to the office where we’ve “banished” his ride-on toys (because he keeps standing on top of them). He climbs on (correctly) and I watch him closely. I still have the camera, so I take a few more pics.

Then he tries to climb on top of it but I catch him before he stands up. We get off of it and I try to get him to leave the room (so that I can shut the door and keep him away from said toys). He instead proceeds to start climbing on daddy’s guitar amp. I told him “no” and “stop” but he kept going, and sure enough, he toppled over the top and got stuck. Time for consequence number 2.

9:35 a.m.- He screams in the crib for two minutes.

9:37 a.m.- I go in to get him and we talk about the importance of listening and obeying, when mommy says “no” or “stop.” We review how it’s my job as his mommy to keep him safe! I hug him and tell him that I love him. He clings to me.

9:42 a.m.- Nearly an hour after I began eating, I go back out and try to FINISH my breakfast. I finally finish!  Hallelujah… something accomplished today!

9:45 a.m.- Jedidiah finds the ball we spent the early morning searching for (where he found it, I have NO clue). He plays independently for a moment and I sit and begin to write this. I notice that he’s squatting in the corner- I can tell that he’s pooping.  Note to self- when he’s done, change him.  Then he starts playing with the electrical plug where my computer is plugged in.  I tell him again, “No Jedediah.” He continues to play with it. I tell him again, “Jedidiah, listen to Mommy. Mommy said no.” He chooses not to listen or obey. Time for consequence number 3.  This morning is off to a sure-fire start…

9:47 a.m.- I put him in his crib again… and he cries again.

9:49 a.m.- I go back in and we have another conversation about how he needs to listen and obey and how my job is to keep him safe and I love him too much to let him get hurt. I hug him and try to put him down he clings to me again.

9:50 a.m.- My nose reminds me that he pooped a few minutes ago and I say to him, “Okay let’s change your poopies!”  He cries as I lay him down on the changing table and squirms and squirms and fights and fights. So I pick him back up and we cuddle for a moment. I tell him again, “I love you. I’m not mad at you but you need to listen. I love you too much to let something happen to you.” Then again I say, “Let’s change your poopies.” I laid him down on the changing table for a second time and I begin my poopy diaper chant that goes something like this- “We don’t want no poopies, no we don’t, no we don’t.  We don’t want no poopies, no we don’t, no we don’t” (Original, I know…). Finally he sits still long enough for me to change him.  I try to take his diaper off and wipe his bum and then he fights and squirms, so I play with his toesies. We play for a few minutes and then I get a new one on and diaper number 2 is done for the day!  Now he’s a happy boy. As he’s finishing up, Jedidiah finds his pajamas that we’d taken off earlier (still in the same place we’d left them) and tries to throw them off the changing table. He tried multiple times and they fell in the exact same place each time. They weren’t even close to going off the changing table!  Mommy thinks this is entertaining so she allows him to keep going. Then he gets it closer to the edge, so I helped him get them and finally throw them down onto the floor, where he wanted so desperately to get them. I get him down and he throws his own diaper in the pail which he likes to do. Then he finally goes and plays independently.

9:57 a.m.- Jedidiah is walking up and down the hallway. He goes back to his high chair and points up and says, “ate, ate, ate” (eat, eat, eat). I can’t believe he’s hungry again!  Keeping this kid fed is a full-time job!!!  He continues to clamor at the high chair so I put him in and choose baby food for him.  Today is “guava, pear and strawberry.” I don’t particularly like feeding him baby food and much prefer the pouches so that he can eat it by himself, but today we are out of pouches so… baby food it is. I feed him a few bites and he wants to try and feed himself, but this particular baby food is too runny and it’s going to make a big mess. So Mama resumes control over the spoon. Even with me in control I spill some on his tray. He immediately proceeds to play with it with his finger and tries to pick it up and put it back on his spoon. Then he dips his finger in the puddle and feeds mama. I continue to feed him until he takes the spoon again and dumps a puddle on his tray that he can smear around. I let him because, quite frankly it distracts him and lets me feed him.  Otherwise he just wants to feed himself and it’s such a mess!

10:07 a.m.- We finish eating and I begin to clean him up. I wipe his hands, he wipes his tray and I wipe his mouth. Then I get him out and he takes his spoon to the sink. I always make him bring his spoon/fork/plate/bowl to the sink. He throws it in there, but for now it’s better than nothing. We will work on gently placing them in there later.

10:16 a.m. Mommy finally takes a bathroom break!!! I can hear Jedediah playing with his scooter and I’m praying that he’s not climbing on it. I can hear his little feet shuffling so I think not. I finish quickly and come back out. He is playing nicely on his scooter. Whew!

10:18 a.m.- He tries to climb on top of it again. Mommy says “stop” and he stops! VICTORY!  He pushes it down the hallway instead. Then goes to the back door and says “out!” I tell him not yet. We have to wait until after his rest (nap).

10:22 a.m.- I remember I need to put the laundry in the dryer, so I quickly do so.  While the laundry room is open, Jedidiah sees the fly swatter, which for some strange reason, he loves (don’t worry, we disinfect it).  He runs around the house with it for a few minutes.

10:22 a.m.- He’s back to the scooter in the office. He begins to play the guitar and I let him play for a few minutes then he moves back to his bedroom.

10:25 a.m.- Jedidiah proceeds to go through all the clothes that I just folded (but didn’t quite get to putting away) and strews them about.  Since that didn’t make enough of a mess, he then goes to pull out books from his bookshelf.  He backs his little butt up and sits on my lap for approximately 1 second and then goes off to get another book until we have more books on the floor than we do on the bookshelf (well, maybe not quite…).

10:28 a.m.- He then gets distracted by the pajamas he threw off the changing table earlier and proceeds to try and put them in the diaper pail.  I tell him that that’s not where they go and I show him the hamper where his dirty clothes are supposed to go. Once he realizes that that’s where the clothes go, he then grabs all of his new clean clothes that are still on the floor and puts them in with the dirty ones (THAT will teach me not to put the laundry away immediately).

10:30 a.m.- I pick out an outfit for him to wear and begin to get him dressed.  I put Frankincense on him and then, half-dressed, he takes the bottle and looks like he’s going to put it back on the shelf where it belongs… I’m thinking, “Good job kiddo!”… which quickly turned into, “Nope…”  Ha!  Gotcha mom!  It is now half-way across the room in a place that I will probably never find it again if I don’t move it back to it’s place right now.

10:35 a.m.- It’s time to clean up and take a rest break for Mommy! I let him turn on his fan and he gives me kisses. Then I put him down.

10:38 a.m.- FREEDOM!!!!!!!  I immediately think to myself, “Dang, why didn’t I already get dressed so I could just jump right into my workout!?!”  I then think of 1,037,896,583 other things I also need to get done.  Message Billie, respond to Cat, post pictures from yesterday, send small group invite, wash the dishes, put the clothes in the dryer, etc, etc, etc.  I check my phone and realize I have two video messages.  I watch and respond to both.  As I do, I realize that I look like a hot mess.  I literally look like I just rolled out of bed- still in my jammies, no bra, my hair was all over the place, no makeup… I think to myself… oh, well, this is life.  If they’re really my friends, they’ll love me regardless (sorry guys).

10:43 a.m.- I get dressed and put on deodorant when I realize that my armpit hair is nearly long enough to braid…shame. When is the last time I showered???  Eesh.  Frazzled, I look for my workout calendar.  I can’t find it (of course) . The chances of me getting this workout done during this nap are beginning to look dismal. I find the calendar- today’s workout is 47 minutes long…NOOOOOOOOO.  I get the DVD set up and get ready to work!

10:45 a.m.- I finally start my workout.

10:50 a.m.- Jedidiah cries. Nooooooo, he can’t be awake already!!! He quiets and then cries again.

10:53 a.m.- Jedi cries again.  I pray, “please let him go back to sleep!”  He does.

11:39 a.m.- Jedidiah wakes up and I’ve nearly completed my workout.  Just a few more minutes of cool down!  Success #2!!!  I take a selfie of myself post-workout with him for my challenge group post.

AND… that’s where I will leave you.  A cliff-hanger, I know… 😉  Stay tuned for more stay-at-home-mom posts!