Day in the Life: Winter 2011

So this wasn't exactly a banner day in the Mothership household, but it was a day in the life. And accuracy counts right? Poor baby girl was dealing with an incisor and a molar coming in all day (make that all week now), so she was not quite herself. In spite of being a crabcake, we still had some fun times.

5:20 AM - Bella starts up her morning bleating, "Mama! Miggy! Mama! Dada!" Miggy=milk. She used to say milk, but changed over to miggy a few months ago. I go and scoop up Bella, along with her stuffed animals: Pinky, Doggy, and Doggy (or Pinky-Doggy-Doggy as they are known round these parts), and bring her to our bed where I can snooze & nurse her.

5:45 AM - Head to the bathroom and do our morning thang, the highlight of which includes brushing our teeth.  Why such a highlight? Because teeth brushing *NOW* comes with baby toothpaste. WHEEEE! We are now fending off an additional 5 requests for teeth brushing each day (and also fending off the mini-tantrum when said request is denied).

 

 6:00 AM - Bella and I head all the way downstairs to the basement to feed the panicked cats ("MEOOOOOW!"), and I throw in a load of laundry. I still get gaggy doing tasks this early in the morning so I mouth-breathe through the whole thing and just get 'er done.

6:10 AM - Breakfast. We have leftover fruit salad (mango, pomegranate, & blueberries), some banana, and Raisin Nut Bran. That Coke Zero? Yeah. That's mine. I try to pretend it's not so bad. Made with less-offensive Splenda? Only 8 ounces? Meh. It's a vice.

 

6:25 AM - After breakfast, I really want to catch up on my blog reading and Bella is really wanting to catch up on her family video clip watching (all the videos on my blog/Vimeo website), so I do the really classy move of opening both laptops and putting them side by side. I know this is totally ridiculous given the fact we don't watch let Bella watch TV. Obviously the difference between watching short clips of the family and watching some Barney is a fine line indeed. BUT, mama wants to read her email, so we roll with it.

 

6:45 AM - We do some playing with her toys and puzzles and whatnots.

7:15 AM - Daddy's awake! Very exciting for Bella and she takes off for the stairs. I follow her up and after greeting Daddy, we decide to tackle the mountain of laundry (woe) while Daddy is in the shower. 

 

Bella is now at the stage of being a little helper and I had her put her clothes and socks into the basket to transfer to her room. She made sure to applaud herself between each successful addition to the basket. Oh, and she found the Owl shirt and insisted that I put it on her. My little helper wasn't being so helpful, so I give up and make the bed instead. The pile of clothes would remain mountainous for the next 36 hours.

So that pregnancy pillow? TOTALLY CREEPY LOOKING. Like I have a big old worm in my bed.  What to do with it during the day? WWMD? (What would Martha Stewart do?) Also: DRYWALL! STILL! FOUR YEARS LATER! Decorative in an exposed-pipes kind of way!

7:45 - I force Husband to take my belly picture for my Bumpdate post, except my belly disappeared.Will make sure to consume great quantities of sodium today to remedy the situation.

7:50 AM - Daddy eats breakfast and Bella eats some of it with him for her second breakfast of the day.  Husband thinks he is HI-LARIOUS and does creepy things with his supplements and insists I take pictures. (2 vitamin Ds, a horse-pill omega-3, and a multi-vitamin, if you are curious.)

 

8:15 AM - Recycling man is here!

 

I love the arrival of recycling man as it buys me a full 5 minutes of getting kitchen things done every two weeks. Are your toddlers supah dupah clingy in the kitchen? WHY? And do you think the recycling man enjoys having his every move monitored by someone 2 feet tall or finds it creepy? Regardless, I feel really bad for the guy. It's so cold out.

8:30 AM - Husband heads to work and I set B and I up at the dining room table. I give her some markers and a coloring book and I get the meal planning and grocery list done. She chooses to do most of her coloring on my grocery list.

9:00 AM - We go grocery shopping and it's a real pooper-ific experience between the frigid cold, icy roads, and crabby girl. Bella has this awesome new trick in the car where she removes her hat, mittens, boots and socks and then cries for a lot of the trip. I believe she is crying because she is cold. Yes, I told you it was an awesome trick.

Nothing is more slimming than a puffy down coat.

10:30 AM - We return home and I park the car. This is how close to the wall I have to park. On a related note: knocked my front right headlight out the other day. AWESOME!

 

We get inside and drink our beverages. 

 

I shouldn't have used my Starbucks giftcard money on that half-caf non-fat Caramel Macchiato. It's hard to enjoy during a car ride with screamy child. Besides, milk plus caffeine gives me the poops, yo.

Our grocery bounty. Shameful purchases forced to hide in the corner.

 

macchiato filled me up.

Bella also opts to throw a couple tantrums, too, while lunch is getting prepared.

For sure my favorite picture of the day.

Someone is less than thrilled with the toddler as of late.

11:45 AM - Lunch is finished and I put Bella down for her nap. Instead of napping she half-heartedly cries for 20 minutes. I write a blog post during that time, hoping she will go down on her own, but it doesn't happen. I go back in and "re-nap" her (re-do the nap routine) and she goes down easily.

12:10 AM - Naptime = PARTYTIME!

During naptime I decide to get my exercise done for the day rather than waiting until later that evening (and not doing it). I end up running for 1/3 of my 30 minutes on the treadmill. GO ME! Hence the proud half-naked picture featuring Husband's classic sweats from the 90s. I also make up a marinade for that night's dinner, heat up my lunch (leftover tator-tot hotdish - judge me, it's OK - and two clementines), shower, and have time left over to lounge and read a magazine. A very successful use of naptime minutes.

Here is what Team Gray is up to during naptime: classic semi-pervy feline hijinks.

2:20 PM - B gets up from her nap and is, sadly, still crabby. Poor baby. Poor mama. She grabs pinky-doggy-doggy and I nurse her.

2:45 PM - Bath time

3:15 PM - The rest of the afternoon passes with book reading, chasing each other around the couch, additional dance parties, and other random things. We also have a snack in there.

4:45 PM - I start making dinner. Tonight we are having Chicken-Satay Asian Salad. I make up some spaghetti noodles and do a modified Asian Noodles w/Chicken & Red Peppers for Bella since lettuce doesn't really work for her yet.

5:00 PM - Daddy's home! Joy for all. Bella and Daddy enjoy a pickle (a daily ritual) and then he supervises her crushing some cashews for our dinner.

5:25 PM - We eat as a family and Bella eats her whole dinner up. I wasn't sure she would go for the Asian noodle thing (not pictured), but she liked it.

5:50 PM - A little more playtime and then up to her room for some family book reading.

6:15 PM - We start her bedtime routine and she goes down without a fuss.

6:30 PM - Husband and I get chores done together (our new routine after this post - LOVE!) and then relax on the couch with our computers. Midgie, our Maine Coon cat, curls up next to me. She gets obsessed with me when I'm pregnant. Actually, all the cats act extra-lovely towards me while pregnant. Kind of weird. Best not to think about it too much and just appreciate the additional cat love.

8:30 PM - I head up to bed with Husband, likely with some dessert to eat while in bed (can't remember, but that's usually the case so we will just assume that is what happened), and read for a while before I crash for the night. We are both sleeping before 9 pm. For reals. LAME CAKES!

THE END!