A Day in My Life

Back in September I was excited to share a day in my life with you all, and with the readers on Ashley's blog.  It was fun to document a whole day, and to be able to look back on it.  I've been wanting to do it again for a while now, to see how life has changed.  I decided that today was as good a day as any!  Imagine my surprise when I looked back and saw that I shared my day on the blog here on September 18.  And it is now March 18.  Exactly six months later!  Crazy!

7:06 - I groggily open my eyes as I hear Ruby stirring on the monitor.  I am extra sleepy because last night was a Walking Dead night, so we stayed up late.  Mr. G is still sleeping, too, which means he is going to be late.  I get up, go to the bathroom, and take my thyroid medicine (which I first drop on the floor and have to find in the dark - with a dog and a baby, I can't leave that lying around!).

Ruby has quieted back down, so I lay back down and check Facebook on my phone.  Maybe she went back to sleep?  I participated in a big consignment sale over the weekend, so I take a moment to check the JBF website to see if the items I was missing last night at pick-up had actually sold and just weren't in the system yet.  They did!  Yay, more money for me!

7:22 - Ruby really is awake, so I go in to get her.

She does not appreciate the flash.  I pick her up, and immediately she starts pointing at her cloud mobile.  She does not appreciate her diaper change either, and protests by forcefully slamming her feet down on the changing pad.  I distract her by asking, "Where's your cakes?"  She points them out on her jammies and forgets how much she hates being changed.

7:30 - We go back into my room to nurse on the bed.  I turn on the tv to watch the news, but get distracted because there is an NCIS rerun on the channel it's on (I'm a huge NCIS junkie).  Ruby finishes and we say goodbye to Daddy, as he hustles out the door.  Because he is late, I don't get to take a shower.  =(  My mom is coming over later, so maybe I will then.  We play for a bit, then I remember I need to switch a load of diapers from the washer to the dryer.

Mr. G left a sock in there, so Ruby entertained herself with it, instead of the usual dryer balls.

8:00 - Downstairs we go, it's breakfast time.  Ruby plays with some toys while I scrounge around for something for us to eat.

Shoot, I really need to go to the store.  I defrost some oatmeal and pear puree for Ruby, and mix them together (it's the only way she'll eat oatmeal).  I also pull out a container of diced papaya, which she gobbles up.  I really want toast, but we seem to be out of bread, so I scramble some eggs to make a breakfast burrito.  I leave some out to give to Ruby, but she's not super interested in them.

When Ruby finishes eating, I take her out of her chair and set her down for some floor time while I clean up.  She scoots around, and as usual, pushes the high chair back and forth.  I'm wiping down the counter around the peninsula from her, when I hear a "thunk".  I don't hear anything else, so I assume it was the high chair, but I walk back around to peek at her and find her laying on her back on the floor!!!  She wasn't crying or anything, but the wood floor is hard, so I'm kind of freaked out.  I make a mental note to ask her pediatrician about this, as she seems to have a really high pain tolerance.

8:45 - I scoop her up and take her back upstairs, pretty sure that she needs a diaper change (she likes to dirty it while she eats, gross).  I was right, so I change her.  She protests violently again until I ask her where her clouds are.  She points right at the mobile!  I'm amazed at her language development skills lately.  I take the next few minutes to wash my face, brush my teeth, and put some makeup on.

9:20 - Ruby is getting tired, so we close her blinds, turn her fan on, and grab what I call her "nap sack".  It's just a muslin A&A sleep sack, but we only use it for naps right now, since it's so light weight.  I nurse her again and she falls asleep quickly.  While nursing, my mom texts me to cancel our visit.  She picked up a quick shift for a co-worker from 5am-8am, and is just too tired.  We make plans to meet tomorrow instead.

9:40 - I transfer Ruby from my arms to her crib successfully!  Feeling victorious, I put my contacts in and think about what I want to do with my "free" time.  I decide I want to clean.  I tackle my nightstand, which is a hot mess, then get started on the chair in our bedroom.  It totally becomes the dumping ground of upstairs, and it is completely out of control.  It kind of looks more like a craft closet than a chair.  At 10:15 Ruby wakes up, but thankfully, puts herself back to sleep.  I keep cleaning and organizing all the stuff, then repair the flap on "Where is Baby's Belly Button" that accidently got torn off, and get myself dressed.

10:50 - Ruby is awake.  I give her some time to see if she's really awake, or will go back to sleep like before, and while I do, I look through my baby cookbooks for some new recipes.

11:15 - Ruby didn't go back to sleep, but instead has played quietly with her loveys this whole time.  I decide I better go get her, since she is definitely awake.

"How big is Ruby?  Soooooooo big!"

I change a stinky diaper and get her dressed.  We try a pair of tights that we picked up at the BabyLegs warehouse sale, but they're still too big, so we find a new outfit.  Ruby sits on the floor and plays with her dump truck while I clean up.

11:30 - We nurse again, I straighten my hair, then we head downstairs to grab a snack before we head out.  Since mom is not coming over, we're getting out of the house!  Ruby has some Cheerios, and I make a smoothie with frozen raspberries, frozen pineapple, and lemon yogurt.  It is tasty, and Ruby points at it because she wants to share, but after looking at the astronomical sugar content of the yogurt, I decide it's just for mommies.

12:00 - We buckle into the car and head to Old Navy so that I can return some pants, and hopefully get some jeans since I'm wearing all of mine out (back when I was working, I only wore jeans on the weekends and they lasted a lot longer!).

Hmm...  We're not sure about this top...

We leave Old Navy with a pair of jeans for me, and 2 clearance onesies for Ruby, and walk around the corner of the mall to a new Walmart to return some jammies my mother in law got for Ruby that are too small.  Most of the towns around here don't allow Walmart in their city limits, so it's been a good 6-7 years since I've even been to one.  This one is the nicest/cleanest I've ever seen.  We return the jammies, and pick up another of our favorite Nuk sippy cups and some neon headbands for the babe.  

2:00 - Ruby protests getting buckled back into her car seat, and we head back to our town to go to the grocery store.  Of course, she falls asleep.  Ugh.  I pop in the back seat with her and let her sleep a few more minutes when we get there.  She wakes, and I nurse her for a few minutes so that I don't have a grouchy baby when we go in.  It's a good call, because her mood totally improves.

For some reason, Ruby is obsessed with the idea of turning around in the shopping cart.  Every time I try to turn her back, she kicks her feet as hard as she can and squirms away from me.  I see snippets of the toddler she is becoming, and am scared. =)  She also points at everything, and every person that walks by, doing her usual routine of trying to charm the pants off of everyone in the store.

3:10 - We leave the grocery store.  I'm hoping Ruby will fall back asleep (and stay asleep when we get home) so that she can have an afternoon nap, but no such luck.  In fact, she cries the whole 10 minutes it takes us to get home.  I take her out of the car and bring her upstairs (our garage is the first "floor"), pop her in the exersaucer so I can get our groceries, and let the dog out of the kitchen.  I'm glad to see that she hasn't knocked down or jumped over any of the gates.  She prefers to be allowed in the living room to sleep on the couches while we're gone, but we just got a new rug, and since she ruined the last one, she isn't allowed in there unsupervised anymore.

There's a lot of things I love about my car, but the grocery bag "fence" in the trunk is one of my faves!  It's a flap that pops up so that the bags don't slide all over the trunk.  But there's still room for the stroller behind them, and tons of other stuff if need be!  I grab the diaper bag, purse, our Old Navy & Walmart bags, my smoothie cup, and one grocery bag, but I end up needing another trip to grab the rest.  Living in a townhouse is getting old.

I grab Ruby and bring her up to the kitchen with me.  While I put away the groceries, I realize that I'm starving and notice some gouda in the fridge.  I make a quick sandwich, and Ruby eats almost a whole piece of gouda herself.  We head up for a diaper change, and I put our new clothes away.  

4:00 - I nurse Ruby, and just as I knew she would, she falls asleep.  I let her sleep/comfort nurse for a half an hour.  I decide to try to put her down, even though I'm pretty sure she won't go for it.  Sure enough, she wakes, so we sit on my bed to fold the diaper laundry.

Ruby is doing this weird thing where she grabs something out of the pile, then presses it down in front of her.  She does this over and over before I realize that I think she is "folding"!  I notice that when I fold her wipes in half, I always press/smooth them on the pile, and I am pretty sure she's trying to imitate me.  It is pretty cute!

She also climbs up on my lap and tries to grab the camera.  Goober.

4:30 - Daddy comes home!  He and Ruby "wrestle".  Which really means lots of tickling and barrel rolls.  Big belly laughs ensue.

Mr. G takes Ruby downstairs so he can get a snack.  She points at the Cheerios box, so she earns herself a little snack too.  I quickly unload the dishwasher while the little one is entertained.  Mr. G then leaves with the dog for his parent's house.  Ruby and I stay home, since he'll be out way past her bedtime.

5:30 - Dinner time!  Since Mr. G isn't home, I don't feel like cooking.  So Ruby has a hodgepodge dinner of squash, pasta stars with veggie sauce, and peas.  I decide on soup and sandwich, then remember that I had a sandwich earlier.  Oh well.

Demanding I put more on the spoon.  My little chowhound.

After dinner, I clean up, put the rest of the squash into ice cube trays to freeze, and rinse/sort some black beans, then set them to soak over night.  Ruby plays on the floor, first with Mr. G's shoe, then with the dishwasher.  She's babbling "da da da da da da".  Until I close the dishwasher.  Then it's an angry, "MA MA MA!".  She only makes the "mama" sound when she's mad.  Lovely.

6:15 - Time to head up for a bath.  Since I'm flying solo, I make sure to get everything prepped first.  I put away the diaper laundry, get out some jammies for the girl, get the tub all ready.  Ruby plays with her dump truck again, putting her rattles and o-ball in and out of the truck.

Rubes takes a great bath tonight - no crying, even when I wash her hair (though she does try to climb out when I do, she always does that).  She gets really into playing, and for the first time she experiments with splashing, and she likes it!

All clean!  We do our bedtime routine of lotion, vitamins, brush hair, diaper, and jammies.  Ruby usually cries and protests when we get to the diapering part (I think she knows that bedtime routine means bed, and she doesn't want that), but no tears tonight.  I play silly games with her, and pretty soon she's all dressed.

I have to set her back on the floor with her toys, since I'm alone and still need to rinse out her tub.  I rinse, Ruby plays.

We turn the fan on, grab her fleecy sleep sack, and say good night to her bathroom, room, and hallway as we turn off the lights.  In my room, I change into my pajamas, then put Ruby into her sleep sack.

7:08 - Ruby nurses, and immediately starts pulling my hair, a habit I can't stand (she goes for the little ones at the hairline, and it hurts).  She fights me for the first few minutes, then relaxes into sleep.

7:42 - I creep down the hall with my girl and carefully place her into her crib.  Success.  I sneak back to the hall, shutting her door behind me, and try to avoid the creaky spots in the floor as I make my way back to my room.

7:45 - The neighbors begin to make extremely loud banging/hammering sounds, and I hold my breath, hoping Ruby does not hear.  She doesn't, and they finally stop.  I go take my contacts out because my eyes are tired, then plug in my camera to upload the photos from the day.  At 8:00 I turn on the Biggest Loser finale, and continue to upload photos from my phone also.  I start this post, but decide I need dessert, so I go downstairs to grab some of my favorite Trader Joe's dark chocolate with almonds.

9:45 - I'm still working on this post when Mr. G comes home.  The Biggest Loser ends, and I'm happy about the winner.  We start watching Deception, and Ruby cries out.  We stare at the monitor, and Ruby goes back to sleep.  But then a few minutes later, she cries out again.  We watch the monitor to see if we need to go get her, but she goes back to sleep again.

10:48 - I get to the end of this post.  After I hit "publish", I'll snuggle under the covers, find out who killed Vivian on Deception, and head off to dreamland.  Goodnight!