A Day in the Life...

My friend Laura did this on her blog this week and I loved the idea, so here you go.

Here is a day in our life...

Friday, July 23, 2010


5:00 am Jason's alarm goes off. Snooze...snooze...snooze... I am so tired I only hear it go off once.


5:50 am Jason is up and getting ready for work.


6:15 am Jason leaves for work...


7:14 am I no longer have a use for an alarm clock. In fact I can't remember the last time I set one. I have this other kind of technology that wakes me up- there is no snooze button and I am never too tired to hear it...





7:17 am I hear Lauren and look to see her sitting up playing in her crib. She is up, so I get up...After brushing my teeth I open the door to find my first two customers of the day.

7:20 am I let the dogs out, feed them and go to Lauren's room. She is babbling to herself...

7:24 am She wants LaLa and her blankie with her and needs a few snuggle minutes before she wants down...



7:28 am After she is done snuggling, I ask her to take LaLa and blankie back. She really only is attached to these items when she sleeps and is happy to put them back once she wakes up.





7:29 am Once she is down, I start getting her breakfast ready, give the dogs their medicine, start unloading the dishwasher and rescue a few farm animals from Loudoun. Lauren is playing with the farm animals while she waits for breakfast.





7:38 am Breakfast time! Lauren has milk, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe half a piece of whole wheat french toast and greek yogurt to dip it all in.




7:54 am The moment I have been waiting for...finally! I have two sips and it is potty time. Off we go...


7:55 am Lauren is happy to sit on her potty. She doesn't always sit very long though. We really aren't potty training, just getting her used to the idea.

She wants to brush her teeth, so I let her- this keeps her occupied for a few more minutes on the potty.

The princess on her throne

8:01 am Lauren toddles out of the bathroom and escapes to the kitchen. Before I can get a diaper on her she is tinkling on the kitchen rugs. I get those in the wash and get the laundry out of the dryer. Lauren grabs some things out of the laundry basket and tries to put them on. Then decides it will look better on Logan. She also gave him her milk and a ball. She loves Logan!



8:15 am Sip 3 of coffee...then finish the dishes, clean up from breakfast. I check my phone to find out our playdate at the indoor playground is cancelled. Plan B... Petting Farm and swimming. I put on an episode of Mickey Mouse for Lauren while I print out the directions, start gathering our swimming stuff, pack a lunch, get dressed, and pick up the tupperware she pulled out while helping me unload the dishwasher.


8:47 am I pick out some clothes for Lauren and get her dressed. Then she puts her pajamas in the dirty clothes hamper

and tries to put her shoes on.

8:52 am I gather last minute items, take another few sips of coffee and let the dogs out one more time while Lauren reads a book in her chair.

8:58 am Lauren is ready to go. We head out and pack the car. I come back in to heat up my coffee and pour it in a mug to go.

9:09 am We start driving to the petting farm. It was about 30 miles away which is farther than we normally go for playdates, but Lauren is so interested in farm animals lately I thought it would be worth it. It didn't help that I took a wrong exit, but she was less than thrilled about the long drive and traffic. We listened to her CD on the way, which only cheered her up temporarily. She was so happy to get out when we got there.

10:02 am We arrive at the Petting Farm. Lauren can't wait and toddles off... She isn't quite "running" yet.

10:48 am My camera battery died! The next few pictures are from my phone...

11:15 am The girls were done petting the animals, so Lauren and I followed Lisa and Kaitlyn to Chisolm Park to have lunch and go swimming.

11:33 am Lunch time! Edamame, cantaloupe, hummus, pita, bell pepper strips and Lauren got a special treat- an apple juice box. She was thrilled and sucked it down...

11:53 am Lauren and Kaitlyn are done eating and wander off to the playground... Lisa and I go get them and bring them back to our picnic. They eat a few more bites of food, but are way too interested in the duck pond, swings and slides.

12: 14 pm We got through the line at the pool, changed into our suits and hit the pool. Lauren insisted on wearing her crocs after about 20 minutes... The girls had a great time climbing on the play structure, splashing, jumping, wading, swimming and Lauren even got a few piggy back rides...


1:08 pm Snack time. Grapes and cherries.


1:21 pm After a quick diaper change we played for a while longer. Lauren wanted to go down one of the smaller tube slides so I took her up and Lisa waited at the bottom. She was happy to go down and had no fear (which I was surprised because she has never been on a tube slide, much less a water tube slide). She went down fine, but at the end when it straightens out she fell back and hit her head. She was very upset.

1:38 pm Popsicle time- which cheered Lauren right up! Then we dried off, changed our clothes and left. Lauren was beyond tired and laid her head on my shoulder on the walk out to the truck.

1:46 pm We pulled out of the parking lot.

1:48 pm Lauren is asleep.

2:22 pm We arrive home. I put the dogs out, get Lauren into bed, unpack the car and put everything away. Lauren's nap time = my work time... I do some laundry, make some calls, check and respond to email, upload pictures, blog, check Facebook, clean the kitchen, plan out dinner, do some more baby-proofing, vacuum...

4:17 pm Lauren wakes up from her nap. She goes to her high chair and signs "eat"

4:20 pm Snack time. We have a quick snack of cheese, crackers and pears. Then we get ready to go to the gym. We normally go much earlier than this, but we had a longer/farther playdate today so things are a little later than normal.

4:48 pm At the gym. Lauren loves to hold my membership card and give it to the front desk person.

6:34 pm Done with workout and shower. [Lauren loves Ms. Carol at the Kids Club at the gym. Carol tells me how Lauren gets jealous when she holds other kids and how she will ask her to go play with her by taking her hand and leading her across the room...The other people working there tell me how much they love her, how she is their favorite and how she gets special treatment.]


Headed home for dinner.

6:35 pm Get stuck at the railroad tracks. This happens a few times a week and I always roll down the window and let Lauren see the train. She raises her arm and says "who, who"

6:40 pm We get home and check the mail. Lauren helps by carrying the newspaper. She also loves to open and close the mailbox and put the flag up.

6:41 pm Lauren feeds the dogs. She does this every night for me- with a little help and supervision!

Filling Logan's bowl

Going back for more

Scooping up more food

Filling Loudoun's bowl...well, almost.

6:47 pm Dinner time! We have broccoli, lentils, peaches and a tabouleh-like salad with wheat berries, bulgar and veggies in it.

7:11 pm Lauren toddles to her room and takes off her shoes...and puts them away.

7:12 pm I take off her clothes and she puts them in the dirty clothes hamper

7:14 pm Bath time!

7:22 pm Time to brush her teeth again, with her Tigger toothbrush. She loves it!

7:26 pm We finish bath time, get Lauren in her pajamas and then it is "Tigger and Pooh time" She runs to the couch and takes her position...

Singing and dancing to the theme song.

7:30 pm While Lauren watches the first few minutes of "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" I clean up from dinner, clean up from bath time, unpack from the gym and straighten up. Lauren enjoys this time relaxing before bed.

7:40 pm I sit down to watch the end of the show with Lauren and we cuddle on the couch.

7:52 pm Jason gets home from work and plays with Lauren for a few minutes. Lauren is so tired and it is late for her to be going to bed...

7:56 pm Time for treats for the puppies. Lauren has treats for both dogs. She gives Logan one. She walks to Loudoun and holds it out then turns around, walks back and gives it to Logan. So funny! Loudoun is always the one who steals her toys, smacks her with his tail and doesn't play nice with her. Logan plays ball with Lauren, lets her "ride" him, cuddles with her and is so tolerant of her antics. I am sure this is why she gives him preferential treatment! (We give Loudoun a couple treats so he doesn't feel left out!)

7:59 pm Good night kisses for daddy and then she toddles off to her room.

8:00 pm Lauren is so tired she doesn't even wait for me to read her books...She starts without me.

Here are a couple of her favorite books that we read tonight

8:11 pm Lights out. We say our prayers, listen to our lullaby music and Lauren finishes her milk.

8:15 pm Lauren is in her crib, ready for bed!

8:16 pm Jason and I talk about our days, and relax for a few minutes. We decide we are both too tired to play on the wii tonight or even watch our Netflix movie. But, he surprised me and got me my favorite candy, York pieces and I have some, of course (I have no willpower)!

8:42 pm Jason starts watching the Craftsmen Truck Race and I start working on this blog entry.

9:02 pm Jason is asleep on the couch.

9:33 pm Jason wakes up and we make a marinade for his steaks for tomorrow. We watch E! news together, goof off on the computer and I do some logic puzzles.

10:45 pm We say it is getting late... we need to go to bed...I blog again, check some email, check Facebook...

11:00 pm Lauren is crying. I don't go in every time she cries, but I can hear that she is very upset and can see on the monitor that I need to go in. I go comfort her. She asks for milk. I get her milk, she drinks it for a minute and falls back asleep. I think she really just wanted a hug.

11:02 pm Jason and I start getting ready for bed. we finally make it there around midnight.

3:03 am Lauren is crying hysterically. I go in and give her a dry diaper and rock her for a few seconds to calm her down. I am guessing it was a nightmare of some sort...she is okay after a few seconds and I put her back in the crib. It is extremely unusual for Lauren to wake up once in a night, but twice is almost unheard of anymore. I don't know why she isn't sleeping well tonight. She must have fallen asleep because I went back to bed and didn't hear from her again until...

6:52 am Lauren is up, babbling, playing her lullabies and jumping in her bed. I go in to see my little monkey and sing her good morning song, "Good Morning to you, Good Morning to you, Good Morning to Lauren, Good Morning to you" She smiles and dances. Then she gets hugs and kisses and squeals...I get kisses. Life IS good.

7:04 am This morning Lauren didn't need snuggle time. She was awake, happy and signed "eat" right away. The girl was hungry! So here she is having some oatmeal with raisins, and some blackberries, blueberries and strawberries to start her morning. I had to take this picture...notice the toes! In the meantime, Jason's alarm has gone off, he is ready and off to work. I am working on getting some coffee...

** Normally Lauren doesn't watch TV in the morning but since our plans changed at the last minute I had to run around and pack up for the morning. When she is "helping me" get ready it is like taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back if she isn't occupied- Mickey Mouse was the easiest thing today... We are also normally home by noon from our morning activities (gym, playdate, library, etc) and after we eat lunch we read books and she goes right to sleep for her nap. Jason is also home a little earlier than he was tonight, but otherwise, this is a pretty typical day! Lauren is hardly ever up in the middle of the night so this was a very unusual night with two wake-ups!

But as routine as our life is, it is pretty unpredictable at times. But who needs predictable when you have the slightly crazy and amazingly fun life with a 15 month old?!