Daily Livin'

Good morning! Well, I guess if you live on the east coast it's afternoon already... Anyway, good... day?

If you'd like to see what a "typical" day in my life with an (almost) 18 month old, head over to The Domestic Wannabe to check us out!

And if you came over to visit from Ashley's blog, welcome, don't mind the cobwebs (I promise they'll clear once I'm done with this craft sale!), and feel free to stick around!

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!

A Day in My Life

It's Tuesday!  Tuesday is my most regular day of the week, because we usually go to baby class that day.  In case you missed it, last week I was over on Ashley's blog sharing a Tuesday of my life.  So, since Tuesday has rolled around again, I figured I'd share it here, for posterity.  Luckily, I don't think today will be as crazy as this one was!

Oh, and if you came to my blog because of my post over on Ashley's blog, welcome! =)

***  

5:30 - My alarm goes off.  Yuck.  I want to shower before Keith leaves though, so I have to get up this early.  I'm exhausted because I stayed up late watching Coma, but it's now or never.  I turn on the news for a minute to help me wake up, then I hop in the shower.

6:05 - Ruby is still asleep, so I pump the side she's not going to nurse off of.  I stay home with her, and we rarely do bottles, but I got nervous thinking something might happen to me or my supply so I'm trying to create a freezer stash.  I get 3.72oz.  Not bad!

6:30 - I do my makeup, and finish just in time to do the "car rodeo" with Keith.  We have a 1-car garage and 1-car driveway.  My car was in the driveway and he had to leave, so a rodeo was necessary.  We call it that because K used to be a firefighter, and the driving test for the engine is called a rodeo.  How that translated to our driveway shuffle, I can't even remember, but the car rodeo is seriously a pain.

Ruby is still sleeping when we're done, so I take the time to make coffee, check emails, make a list of all the errands we need to do today, dry & straighten my hair, and read blogs because she's still asleep after all that!  I am really fortunate, Ruby is a great nighttime sleeper.  As in, she doesn't wake at all from the time we put her down until she's up for the day in the morning.  I'm terrified the four-month wakeful will hit and it will all go away!  And before you all hate me, she doesn't nap well at ALL.

Good morning!

7:50 - Ruby is awake!  Good thing too, I was about to have to wake her up, we're going to our parent-baby class at the hospital today.  She nurses, then we play for a bit and I trim her nails.  She scratched me good while she was nursing.  That's usually how I know it's time for a trim.

She loves to play with her burpies, too.  Weirdo.

I take her into the nursery and set her on her playmat so I can figure out what to dress her in.  She is just starting to bat at the toys, and today she managed to turn the music on in the little tiger-thing for the first time, sweet!

I can't figure out what to put her in, though.  It's going to be a weird weather day - 74 later, but it's in the 50s now.  And her little cardigans are too big for her, but I don't find that out until I've made her do several outfit changes, and now she's not too happy with me.  I realize her jeggings are down in the diaper bag, so I just put her into the car seat without them.  I'll dress her when we get there.

8:50 - Crap!  We're late!  I meant to get out the door 10 minutes earlier.  It's the first day of school in the three districts we have to drive through and I know traffic will be a mess.  I'm not wrong.  It's horrible.  After enduring an aggravating interchange, we get into the carpool lane and cruise the rest of the way to the hospital.

9:27 - We pull into the hospital garage.  It takes 10 more minutes to park (the spaces are soooo narrow, but I manage to snag one on the end), get all our stuff loaded into the Snap N Go, and get into the hospital and down to our classroom.  We stroll in and...  No one else is there.  Whaaa?  We're 10min late!  I guess everyone else is, too.

I take Ruby out of her car seat, put her pants on, and hand her off to Wendy, our instructor, so I can run down the hall to the bathroom.  It is really weird to be able to pee in peace, alone.

When I get back, a few other mommies and babies have trickled in.  Wendy told me that Ruby cried after I left.  That's new, I wonder if the separation anxiety phase is kicking in.  I open up some yogurt I brought along (Fage raspberry, SO good!), and class begins.

Our little square of the room.  We have everything we need!

Class today is awesome.  A woman who did parent-baby long ago, also happens to be a therapist.  She came to talk about the adjustment to parenthood, and then helped us out with role-play and suggestions for our own personal issues with our spouses/parents/inlaws/etc.  It was good to know that pretty much all of the other mothers there share the same struggles I do (I notice this every week and it always shocks me, but always makes me feel better).  Class today was small, so she had time to help all of us.  Usually we only have guest speakers for half of the class, and the other half we spend with questions/concerns about what our babies are up to that week, but we spend the whole time with our speaker.  She was that cool.  During class we also nurse, change, and play with our babies.  I try to get Ruby to nap, and even though I'm usually able to in class, she's not having it.  Even sitting on one of the yoga balls they bring in for us doesn't help.  Oh well.

She listens really intently to the speakers.  It's so cute.

Class ends at 11:30, but I spend the next 40min chatting.  That's the best thing about it, I've formed friendships with other mothers, and all of their babies are Ruby's age.  We frequently have picnics or playdates outside of class, and we discussed what we wanted to do next.

12:10 - I take the tunnel from the building I'm in to the main part of the hospital.  I need to go upstairs to the Baby Boutique and buy Ruby a swim diaper.  I signed her up for an infant swim class and it starts soon.  I buy the smallest one they have (3-6mo) hoping it will fit her.  She's a peanut.

12:25 - Finally leave the hospital.  We drive 20min south to the dealership where we bought my car.  They have a car wash there that is free to use if your car is from there.  I try to take advantage of it whenever I'm in the area.  It's a nice day, so there's a ton of people there, but Ruby seems to have fallen asleep in her car seat, so I use their wifi to browse on my phone for the 20ish more minutes it takes.

1:03 - Clean car!  We're off to Whole Foods now.  I need to buy some no-salt black beans (my husband has Meniere's Disease, so has to eat an extremely low-sodium diet) and some other stuff for dinner.  After I park, I hop in the back and find this little lady:

She's awake, and hungry, so we nurse right there in the car.  A quick diaper change in the trunk of our SUV, and we're ready.  I pop her in my Beco so I can have both hands to shop.  Miraculously, Ruby does not spit up all over me while she's in there.

Please excuse the blurriness!  I was a little nervous someone would come into the WF bathroom and wonder what the heck I was doing... but I also figured I should be in at least one picture!

2:10 - We leave Whole Foods and I decide to take the scenic road around the lake to our town.

2:30 - We stop at Michael's.  This is finally our last stop!  I decide to risk it, and put Ruby in the Snap N Go, instead of in the Beco.  She hates her car seat, so this is always risky, but she seems like she's in a good mood.  We go to the back corner of the store where the yarn is.  I need more to finish a hat for her, and two for my friend who just had a baby (and her 2.5 year old, so she doesn't feel left out).

The Snap N Go was a mistake.  My arms are loaded with yarn, and Ruby decides she's had it.  I hustle out of there.  We get back to the car, and...  crap.  I forgot I needed a lime when we were at Whole Foods.  Ugh.  I decide to stop at Fred Meyer, since it's in between Michael's and home.

3:00 - Ruby's still crying, so I take her out of the car seat and just carry her into the store.  This actually pacifies her, so it was a good call.  I grab my limes, strap an again-screaming Ruby back into her car seat, and head for home.  Apparently this is too many errands in one day for her.  The lack of nap in class probably didn't help either.

3:20 - Home sweet home!

The garage is the first story of our townhouse, so it takes us a bit to get all of our stuff inside and up the stairs.  I put the groceries away, then whisk Ruby upstairs to change her diaper.  I leave her naked, but swaddle her up.  It's late, but she needs a good nap or she'll be a mess by bedtime.  She nurses for a while, and at 4:15, I put her in her crib.

She still needs a swaddle for naps.

4:21 - She's awake.  Ugh.  I rock her for 10 minutes, then put her down again.  She's out.  Phew!  Keith comes home right after.

I realize that I never ate lunch today and am starving!  Keith says he's hungry too, so I head downstairs to get dinner started.  I get the quinoa started, and then am interrupted by the doorbell.  Diaper mail!  We ordered Ruby some more cloth diapers, since we were able to get 7 for the price of 5 during an awesome sale.  After I ogle them a bit, I finish making dinner: quinoa salad with black beans, tomatoes, orange bell pepper, red onion, avocado, and a lime-cumin dressing.  I don't get to eat it though, little miss is awake.

5:45 - I change Ruby's diaper, then take her back downstairs to nurse.  I'm starving, and I manage to eat while nursing without spilling anything on her!  Success!  I hand her off to Keith when she's done.  While he's holding her, Braidy barks next to them and it totally freaks Ruby out.  Weird!  She has never had that reaction to Braidy barking before.  It takes a few minutes for us to calm her down.

6:30 - We head out for our evening walk.  Ruby is being super crabby in her stroller.  This is also unusual.  Usually she likes looking out at the world on our walk, but she is just not having it.  We're about 3/4 of a mile from home when I decide to just take her out of the stroller and carry her.  She's much happier after that.

We try putting her back in the stroller a when we're closer to home, but she gets upset again, so this time Keith takes her out and I walk the dog/push the stroller.

7:30 - We get back home and I start her bedtime routine.  It's not bath night, so we skip that part, but do vitamins, lotion, diaper, and pjs.  Ruby is clearly way tired, because she cries again.  She usually cries when we put her pjs on - she wants to stay up and not miss anything, I think - but this time it's a total meltdown.

7:40 - I nurse Ruby to sleep, put her in the crib and she stays out.  She was tired!  I relax a bit with the Food Network, keeping an eye on the monitor to make sure she's really out for the night.

8:42 - She really is asleep, so I get the new diapers ready to go in the wash, and dump in the dirty ones.  I go downstairs to grab a popsicle (the Dreyers Real Fruit ones, yum), and my yarn that we got at Michael's.  After I finish the popsicle, I crochet the beak and one of the owl's eyes for Ruby's hat, but I'm too tired to continue (I finished it a few days later, see it here!).  I put it down and turn on the other half of Coma.

10:08 - We're interrupted by a LOUD beeping sound.  It's a furniture truck backing down our street.  Um, what?  Of course, it stops at our new next door neighbor's place.  They moved in 3 days ago, hit Keith's car while it was in our driveway that day, then hammered nails at 7am the next day (a Sunday).  Now they get a (noisy) furniture delivery at 10pm.  They're officially on my not-happy list.

We gripe about the neighbors, get back into bed, and eventually I fall asleep watching tv.  Ruby sleeps until 7:45 the next day, so luckily, I get a decent amount of sleep!

***

Now, for Ashley's questions...

1.)  What is the most surprising thing for you about being a mom?

How hard it is, but yet how amazing.  Breastfeeding was SO hard at the beginning, and made me feel isolated.  But now we're going strong, and that feels awesome!  And some days I'm so tired, I can't wait for her bedtime.  But I still get blown away by how much I love her.  Motherhood is such a dichotomy!

2.)  What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be mamas?

I'm going to pass along my favorite piece of advice that someone told me: you should read the (parenting) book your baby wrote.  In other words, follow your baby!  When Ruby was first born, I freaked out because I was pretty much an expert on fertility (you can read about that here), had read up a ton about pregnancy, but I didn't know anything about newborns!  I thought I needed a book, and I knew which one I didn't want, but not which one I did.  Then I got the advice above, and thought, "Of course!  You're a Montessori teacher, you should have known, follow the child!"  I was already doing that, but once I realized that was all I needed, things got much easier.

3.)  What are your top three baby products?

* Cloth diapers.  Love, love, love these!  We haven't spent a cent buying diapers, they look cute, and well, Ruby only poops once a week, yet we have never ever had a blowout (in spite of her massive poops).  Also, I feel better about not putting crap (literally) in the landfill.

* A mommy-group.  Ok, this isn't a "product," but I'd never have kept my sanity without the camaraderie of the other mothers I've fell in with.  Find some that share your parenting style and have kids the same age as yours.  It's an awesome, awesome thing.

*  Beco Butterfly II.  Pretty early on, Ruby decided she hates her car seat.  Wearing her in the Beco is the only way I can run errands.  Plus, it's really hard to push a cart and a stroller at the same time, and there's not really enough room for groceries if you put the seat in the cart basket.  She also wants to be held pretty much 100% of the time.  The Beco helps out with that a lot.

That's it!  Thanks so much for allowing me to share our day with you!

Check Me Out!

Do you want to see what a day in my life looks like?

Head on over to Ashley's blog and see!