I have been meaning to do a day-in-the-life post for a while. I decided to make use of the obscenely gorgeous Smythson notebook that my SBF (Stationery Best Friend) Vickie gave me that has been taunting me from its box, pure and untarnished.
I did not write any sonnets in it. (Yet.) But I did track my time yesterday and today and I think I will do so for a few days, because it’s rather interesting to see what life really looks like when it is objectively laid out and examined.
Thus far, this weekend is looking pretty good, and it feels that way, too. Josh is on call and I’m off. Notably, we will have far fewer weekends like this next year because we are overlapping call (yay!). But they will still happen. So, without further elaboration . . . here we go!
Saturday, December 5
A – age 3 8/12
C – age 1 9/12
6:20 I hear C through the monitor (sound only, no video, yes I know we are the only ones who don’t watch our kids sleep). Cameron is up and makes enough of a ruckus that A hears him and runs to join the action. I put on the Father John Mistry album and make breakfast. We all hang out for a while (including Josh), and then Josh heads to work. I clean up.
8:00 Brief FaceTime with my sister, play Kacey Musgraves (apparently I like country, who knew?), get kids dressed.
9:00 Off to the playground (walked; it’s just a block from our house). The forecast is for rain all day and it hasn’t start yet, so I figured I might as well take advantage early. Neighbors that I know arrive (yay!) and I marvel at how I can finally let Cameron run freeeeeeee, essentially, within its gates. This is new and awesome.
11:30 Drizzling seems like it is turning into real rain, so we head back so that I can prep lunch. I heat up some leftovers for the three of us. Eat & clean up.
12:15 Book time in C’s room, leading up to his nap.
1:00 Cameron naps. A watches Little Mermaid 3 (1 hr and 15 minutes). I do a 30-minute barre3 (Total Body Rev – my favorite), book a hotel for next year’s Duke reunion (for Josh’s undergrad), and do a little bit of planning. I sneak in a shower.
2:30 Hang out with A since LM3 is over. She plays with me and also by herself; I play but also read a magazine, post to Instagram, text with my SBF (see above)
3:30 C is up! Typically we’d go back outside to the playground (we are there a LOT) but the weather is unpleasant, so we basically just play in the house for 2 hours. Lots of . . . hijinks.
5:15 I give the kids dinner (they eat super early most weekdays) – Annie’s mac ‘n’ cheese, peas, and orange slices. Annabel refuses her mac ‘n’ cheese. Cameron eats his and most of hers. (I offer her carrots / cucumbers / hummus and she takes it. Fine with me.). Baths, bedtime routines.
7:00 I read C several books and put him into bed. I wonder where A is, since she usually participates in his books (either reading her own or demanding his while we are reading it.)
7:15 I go to find Annabel, telling her that she has “15 minutes until the timer goes off!” to play. She is passed out in her crib (!!!). This has never happened before (and probably never will again). I put a diaper on her (she still needs them at night), turn out the light, and exit the room, feeling somewhat shocked and like I got away with something.
7:20 Receive “on way” text from Josh.
7:30 Dinner (leftovers) with Josh. We marvel at the early hour (usually A is not asleep until 8 or a little later).
8:00 Watch one episode each of Fresh Off the Boat and Master of None. LOVE both of these shows.
Asleep by ~9:30.
YES we lead quite the glamorous lives 🙂 We definitely sometimes get babysitters or go out, but not usually on call weekends. And today I had a babysitter come for 2.5 hours so that I could do my long run, so I am NOT always doing my solo weekends completely alone.
All right! LM2 (today’s movie selection) is close to over, so I am going to curl up next to A with a magazine. DITL weekday edition will follow sometime in the future, though I don’t know that it has changed much in recent months.
5 Comments
My kids are 3.5 and almost 2.5, and our day is strikingly similar to yours! Early dinner is the norm here, and 6:20 is wake up time too!
I see you’re going back to paleo, but have you consider a whole food, plant based diet? You should watch Forks Over Knives on netflix. We’ve been doing it for almost two months and have been pleasantly surprised.
That sounds like a great laid-back kind of day! Our weekends are filled with way more in the way of chores & errands. Things we can’t afford to outsource, but I guess we also have a lot less call weekends (just mine, and only a handful per year) so that’s our trade off!
I’m in awe of your ability to do these solo parenting days on the weekends! I get so overwhelmed by them sometimes. I’m really bad at playing "pretend" which is all Griffin wants to do now. I’m much better at projects, so we do play doh or arts and crafts, or I end up dragging him on tons of errands.
I am the same way with Kacey Musgraves and country music, haha. One of the very few country performers I would consider seeing.