a day in the life

I am vaguely aware of Rodney getting ready, no idea what time it is. I hear him leave the bedroom and immediately go back to 100% sleep mode.

6:45  My alarm goes off. I do my normal morning scan of email, facebook, instagram, and timehop.

7:00  Isaac's stoplight turns green and he happily comes into my bedroom. I check the monitor and find Levi still asleep, which is somewhat shocking. I take advantage of the opportunity to stay in bed and rest while Isaac plays on the ipad beside me.

7:15  I check the monitor again and Levi is awake. I get up and start my morning routine. Turn on the Today show while I make coffee and pour Levi's milk. I add a probiotic packet today to counteract the antibiotics he is taking. I get Levi up and change his diaper, then come back to the kitchen for his milk and morning graham cracker, then doctor up my coffee with cream and sugar and take it to the couch.

Levi is feeling feisty this morning and climbing all over me.

7:44  Isaac asks if we're having muffins today (that he requested last night) but I tell him I forgot and it's too late to start now. He gets mad and stomps off to his room and closes the door. A few minutes later he comes out happy to show me that he's fully dressed. Perfect! That's one less step that I have to direct later.

7:53  Levi finds the plastic Easter eggs and starts opening them, looking for "emmas" (m&ms). "Emma? Emma?"

8:00  Breakfast time. Isaac eats his mini pancakes and declares that he's done. Levi eats one mini pancake and asks for yogurt. While they eat I run to the bathroom and start getting myself ready. Isaac finishes and I help him turn on a tv show while Levi finishes his yogurt in his booster seat.

The next 35 minutes are a blur as I run around getting everything ready. Last week was spring break so the boys haven't been to Mother's Day Out in 12 days and I'm a little rusty on the morning routine. I get myself dressed and ready, make Isaac's lunch, then change Levi's diaper and get him dressed. After that he follows me around the house whining and crying while I locate Isaac's backpack and pack everything up.

8:35  I grab a Nutri-grain bar for myself and usher the boys out the door and into the garage. Levi wants to "bump bump" down the steps.

Four minutes later we are all strapped in and on the road.

8:55  In the drop-off line at school. The teacher that comes to get Isaac out today just happens to be Levi's teacher when he goes on Thursdays. Levi see her and thinks she's coming to get him and starts screaming! At the same time, I realize I've left Isaac's water cup at home on the kitchen counter. I say goodbye to Isaac and debate if I should bring him a cup but really don't want to go all the way home and back. They have a water fountain and I hope he'll be fine.

I had planned on going to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies for a wreath I want to make, but my back is hurting today (a common occurrence lately) and I consider just going home but decide to go anyway. Hobby Lobby is one of Levi's favorite places because he loves pointing out all of the fake grapes that they put in their displays.

9:38  We are back home. Levi immediately asks to watch Elmo, and since my back is still hurting and the couch sounds nice, I turn on a little Sesame Street.

10:20  I turn the tv off with some fussing from Levi and ask him if he wants to go upstairs. He says no and goes back to the Easter eggs so I ask him to bring them to my bedroom. I've been wanting to go through my drawers and pull out old clothes that I don't wear anymore. I try to do this regularly in my closet and just did it a few weeks ago, but I know my drawers need a major purge. I quickly realize it's a horrible idea as Levi is walking through my stacks of clothes on the floor and either pulling clothes randomly out of the drawer or throwing them back in. He soon starts whining for a banana, so I give him one. I call my mom for our daily chat and he "talks" to her for a minute, then starts climbing over me on the floor, back and forth.

10:50  I'm sneaking a moment on my phone since Levi has wandered off to occupy himself for a minute, until I hear the baby gate rattle at the bottom of the stairs. I opened it earlier when I invited him upstairs and he has decided he's ready to go. We go play upstairs, and he wants to play with play doh, which really just means I tear it into pieces for him and he carries them around and plays with them in the kitchen like play food.

11:15  Lunch time.

11:30  Levi didn't eat very much and is soon asking to get down and do stickers. It's a good thing the Easter bunny brought lots of stickers for my sticker-obsessed boy.

12:00  Nap time for Levi. It's storming pretty bad and I really hope the thunder doesn't affect this nap, but he falls asleep pretty quickly like normal. I sit down on the couch and eat lunch while watching an episode of Felicity, a series I watched years ago and just recently started re-watching on Hulu.

12:43  Levi wakes up coughing. Totally abnormal for him. He just started antibiotics for a sinus infection yesterday and so far has had no coughing at all...until today, of course. He fussed for a minute and seemed to be looking for his pacifier so I went in and gave him another one.

12:50  My alarm goes off on my phone reminding me to put dinner in the crock pot. I'm thankful for the reminder because I had totally forgotten. Obviously I know myself too well. After finishing at the crock pot, I check the monitor. Levi is still awake, but resting quietly. I'm 99% sure he won't be going back to sleep. I'm totally dreading an afternoon with 30-minute-nap-Levi but I try to remind myself that it's not the end of the world.

1:13 Rodney calls. He's out of the office making a delivery to a client so he had a chance to call and say hi.

1:55  I get Levi up. It's a little early (I usually have to wake him up at 2:05 on Tuesdays) but he's totally done with "resting". I wish I had brought my phone or camera in with me. He usually hops up as soon as I walk in but today he just laid there and looked up at me, obviously still tired. We drive around a little bit extra since we're early and he happily talks to himself in the backseat.

2:28  I strap Isaac into the car. He doesn't like to talk much about school right after, but I ask a few questions and get a few answers.

2:45  We get home and I turn on a show for the boys while they eat a snack. Isaac and I struggle to find a snack that both of us can agree on but he finally settles for goldfish crackers. Levi has goldfish crackers and a pouch, and I can almost guarantee he'll want something else before dinner.

I'm pretty bummed because it's still raining and I'm not quite sure how we're going to fill our afternoon stuck inside. It has been so nice to spend a good chunk of our afternoons outside lately.

3:25  The rain has stopped for the moment so I change Levi's diaper and we go outside for a walk. Isaac was riding his tricycle but we only made it halfway up our street before he decided to put it back in the garage. The hills beyond our street are too hard for him to ride his trike on, and he wanted to walk those today. However, he complained 3 times about his stomach hurting between 2 streets and as we were headed back home we stopped to look at an inchworm and he claimed to be fine after that, so we continued on.

One street in our subdivision has the best puddle spot ever when it rains. Isaac knows this and that's probably why he wanted to walk up there today instead of ride his trike. He's wearing his "good" shoes that I normally wouldn't let him jump in a puddle in, but they're already filthy and since it's the end of the season I decide to let him live a little and take a few big jumps.

4:00  We return home and get situated inside again. Rodney and I have been texting about how busy he is today. We are 8 days away from the end of tax season and I know he has a ton to do and is even more stressed than he tells me. He hates working past 6:00 because he already has very limited time with the boys and he knows it's harder on me. I can tell he needs to work late, so I give him "permission" to do so before he has to ask. I'm disappointed, but it's just part of life right now.

4:11  Levi asks for another banana and Isaac says he would like one too, so I split one between them. I turn on Pandora Toddler Radio and we play around downstairs. They don't really love when I turn on music and Isaac often asks me to turn it off, but they play so well when we have music on in the background. I always play my adult music in the car but at home they get kids music.

4:50  Isaac wants to do a dinosaur floor puzzle.

We get started, but he soon has to use the bathroom. And again. And again. Three times in 10 minutes, complaining of his tummy hurting again. After the third time he never mentioned it again and we finished the puzzle together. Levi spent that time alternating between wandering around doing his own thing and crawling over my lap.

5:45  Dinner time for the boys.

6:00  Right as I turn on one more show for Isaac, Rodney calls. He swears he is caught up on work and is able to come home now. Levi is tv-ed out and throws, kicks, and chases a ball around.

6:16 Rodney walks through the front door and immediately changes clothes then uses the neti pot. He has a nasty sinus headache. He used to get these often but since starting daily allergy meds last year these bad headaches come much less frequently.

6:25  Bath time for the boys. We don't usually start quite this early but Levi needs to be in bed early after his incredibly short nap. I put some laundry away while Rodney supervises the bath tub. 

6:45  Levi gets out of the tub. The next few minutes are filled with diaper, pajamas, a dose of antibiotics, teeth brushing, and back to his room for cuddle time. He is very sleepy and seems content to just cuddle, so I skip reading a book.

6:57  Levi is officially in bed so Rodney and I eat dinner while Isaac plays with Legos by himself. A few minutes later Rodney says he can't even eat because he feels so bad and goes to lay down. 

7:20  I read Isaac a book and cuddle in bed with him for a few minutes before leaving his room.

I go check on Rodney who is awake in bed but still feeling bad. I load a few dishes into the dishwasher and sit down to watch more Felicity while playing on my phone. 

7:37  Rodney's phone is still in the living room and I notice he has a text message so I take it to him. He is asleep. We're currently watching through Lost again and typically watch 2 episodes per night but that's obviously not going to happen tonight, so I take a chocolate bunny from Isaac's Easter basket (that he will never eat) and settle in for a night by myself. 

8:35  To my surprise, Rodney comes out of the bedroom. He says he feels better, but still not great. We end up turning the tv off and talking about lots of different things for a long time, and it feels nice since we tend to get disconnected during tax season when he's gone so much and stressed. 

10:15  We move to the bedroom and continue our talk in bed. 

10:40  Lights out. We're typically both in bed and asleep by 9:45 or 10:00 but this is nice too.