Day in the Life

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5:30 AM. – I hear Noelle, squawking in her crib in her room. I check on her on the video monitor. I pretend to go back to sleep.

5:40 AM. - Nurse Noelle in the dark in her room. Once she’s full & drowsy, I put her back into bed, swaddled.

6:15 AM - Though I’m tempted to go back to bed, I decide to get a shower. My next shot at a shower would otherwise be at 9:30 or 12:30.

6:30 AM – I say bye to Rust & finish getting ready for the day.

6:45 AM – This is a rare day! Both babies are in bed, so I steal a quick fifteen minutes to journal & read my Bible. I’m just now getting back to do this regularly, and oh how I’ve missed it!

7:00 AM  – I hear Anna, so I go downstairs, fill a sippie of milk, and go in to fetch her for our morning reading. Only… her diaper has leaked.

7:20 AM – After wrestling with crib sheets, we’re back in our room, on the bed, for reading. I can’t believe we’re almost done with this devotional!

7:45 AM – Time to wake & nurse Noellie. Nursing is fun but it takes so much longer now because Noelle wants to smile everytime she hears voices. While I nurse, Anna empties Noelle’s drawers of clothes, socks, and shoes, informing me, “I fold Noelle’s clothes, okay Momma?”

8:05 AM – We finally make it downstairs for breakfast. It takes me a while to get rolling because I have two babies to distract me while I prepare breakfast.

8:15 – 8:45 AM -Anna & I eat; Noelle plays on the floor. I run back and forth between Noelle and Anna and somehow remember to eat, too. Breakfast is very interactive for Anna & me: we sing (“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” & “Muffin Man” & “Jesus Loves Me”) & recite the ABC’s while I do the dishes. Anna tends to spend a long time eating breakfast.

8:45 – 9:15 AM – Noelle goes down for her first morning nap. After breakfast, Anna & I read, play, and do laundry. I attempt to get Anna up the stairs cheerfully for bathtime, but she ends up having a mini-tantrum on the stairs.

9:20 AM – Finally in the bathroom! Finally in the bath! She is a water baby and loves taking a bath every morning. We sing and recite the ABC’s quite a bit during bathtime, too. Really, we sing all day. The poor child probably thinks she lives in a musical thanks to me. I can’t help but turn everything into a song. Since having Anna, I think I tend to narrate our day in song…

9:45 AM – Anna happily goes to roomtime, and I enjoy a little breather!

10:40 AM – I get Anna out of roomtime &  help her clean up. Then we go get Noelle up.

10:45-11:15 AM – Nurse Noelle. Anna wrecks havoc to Noelle’s room while I watch helplessly. I really don’t mind — she’s so proud, “folding” and piling Noelle’s clothes in her baby swing. And she’s always good about cleaning up.

 It takes especially long before we’re able to go downstairs because I FINALLY get Noelle to laugh several times for the FIRST time in her life! And I recorded it on video!

11:15 AM – Already so behind today! We all troop downstairs, and I end up playing with both girls when I should be getting lunch for A & me.

I help Anna practice cutting her wooden food (very fun birthday presents from the fam!) & also play with Noelle.

11:30 AM – I finally start lunch, but there are a million interruptions… like stoppping to photograph this sweet play:

11:40 AM - Oops, time to put Noelle down for a nap! Anna follows me back upstairs, and while I’m so focused on changing Noelle’s diaper, tucking her in, and swaddling her, I don’t realize Anna has my point-&-shoot camera, has turned it on, and is snapping pictures. Like this…

11:45 AM  – We finally eat lunch! We rarely eat this late, usually it’s 11:00-11:30 when we have lunch, but this day has gotten away from me! Anna, again, eats quite leisurely & I finish ahead of her. While she still eats, I sweep & we go over some Scripture verses we’re memorizing together (we’ve done two so far!) & some Q&A we’re doing about the Christian faith. She LOVES this and often initiates the recitations.

12:15 PM – Lunch dishes clean, we head outside to run off our energy before naptime. Here are some of the things we cram into twenty minutes:

{picture taken by holding my shaded sunglasses in front of the camera lens… love the instant faded “retro” effect!}

12:35 PM – We come back inside to wind-down by reading. I ignore this:

12:45 PM – Anna’s tucked in her crib for naptime. I have an hour to kill while Noelle finishes her nap. A nice treat since I already feel like I’ve put in a full day. I work on emails, read blogs, and try to finish my summer minibook I’ve been working on slowly but surely.

1:45 PM  – Nurse Noelle. I love this time of day when I nurse Noelle (usually between 1:00 & 2:00 PM) because I’m drowsy, Noelle’s drowsy, the house is quiet, and we get to spend some sweet one-on-one time together!

2:00 PM  – Noelle & I head downstairs so she can play & hang out with Momma.

Here is what our living room looks like by the afternoon…

2:55 PM – Noelle goes down for her nap, and I continute to work on my minibook. A picture of me crafting-in-process…

3:15 PM - I hear Anna upstairs “visiting with herself,” as my Dad calls it. : ) I reluctantly clean up my big mess.

3:20 – 3:45 PM – Anna & I lay in my bed & read. We’re not in any hurry and I LOVE this time of day, right after Anna’s nap.

3:45 – 4:00 PM – I notice our bedroom furniture is pretty dusty, and I’ve been meaning to dust since Monday, and so since I remembered & Anna was pretty content… I dust while Anna plays around me!

4:00 – 4:30 PM  – Noelle is still snoozing, so I finally call my mom to tell her we won’t have time to go visit Grandpa & Nanna Stevens this afternoon. We get to talking, and then I realize Anna has been doing this for about fifteen minutes:

{click to enlarge}

Funny what you can tune out.

4:30 PM  – We wake Noelle up as pleasantly as a momma & toddler can, and I nurse. Anna plays in Noelle’s room. This time she mothers a babydoll, changing its diaper, having it do tummy time, putting it down for a nap in the swing. She may or may not have also attempted to nurse it, too.

5:15 PM  – After Noelle’s late-afternoon nursing we do what I call “tidy up the house for Daddy,” where we get everything cleaned up & ready for bedtime. We go downstairs for a little bit so I can get dinner going, even though its leftovers. Noelle hangs out in her bouncer, and Anna plays.

5:35 PM – It’s pretty late for Noelle to have a fourth nap, but I put her in her swing in her room to have some chill-out time away from the craziness of Anna so she doesn’t get too overwhelmed.

6:00 PM - Whew! Rusty’s home & we are always so excited about this! Anna runs to the door to greet him. I let her outside, and she goes to check the mail with him. Rust & Anna spend time together while I finish dinner. They bring down Noelle to the table… I WISH I got a picture of this!

6:15 PM – Dinner of leftovers!

6:40 PM – We finish dinner! Anna runs around crazily, Rust does the dishes (love him!), and I pack his lunch & finish tidying up the house, getting everything ready for the morning.

6:50 PM – We all head upstairs as a family. I change Noelle’s diaper, get her in her pjs, while Rust brushes Anna’s teeth & helps her into her pjs. We all pile into bed & Rust reads Anna her current favorite storybook.

7:00 PM – Anna gives Momma & Noellie kisses, and goes to pray with Daddy & be tucked in. I nurse Noelle in the dark, cuddle her for five to ten minutes, then put her to bed.

7:20 PM – It’s Wednesday, and the past few weeks I have been having girl-time with my sister on Wednesday nights. I am exhausted, but after visiting with Rust for a few, I head on over there for a couple hours to work on my summer mini–I am determined to finish it! Except I don’t because, as always, Mand & I end up doing more talking than working. But it’s great & refreshing & fun for me. I didn’t take my camera because by that time, I was kind of worn out from taking pictures of EVERYTHING!

9:40 PM – By this time, I am back home, in bed, chatting with Rust, and ready to sleep! I will soon have to start it all over again in the morning!

And that’s a day in our life!

{Now it’s time to share YOUR Day-in-the-Life! I hope it works!}