A Day in the Life

My blogging friend, Laura at Navigating the Mothership invited me to join her in doing "A Day in the Life" blog post. Basically what that means is that you take pictures (and I did video also!) and type a looooooong post to chronicle what you did for an entire day. I decided to do this on Monday. It was really fun and I am glad that I did it. I think it will be great to look back on in a few years to reminisce how much fun life with a toddler was!! Here goes...

7:30am: I wake up, like most days, when Keith is getting ready to leave for work. I realize that I am a slacker and should actually get up much earlier, but I am such a night owl that I love being able to sleep later in the mornings. After I say goodbye to Keith, I shower, dress, throw a load of laundry in and do my hair & makeup (all while keeping an eye - and an ear - on the video monitor to see when Jacob is starting to stir).

8:22am: Jacob is still asleep!! He has been sleeping in later lately and I can't say that I am unhappy about that (except when we have somewhere to go). I get myself some coffee (Keith was nice enough to make a pot before he left for work), check email and facebook.

8:43am: Jacob is STILL sleeping!!!

I move the laundry to the dryer, put in a new load, enjoy the quiet, and wonder if he is ever going to get up!

8:55am: Jacob gets up. I heat up his milk (he drinks a sippy cup of warm milk when he wakes up) and go in to get him. I am greeted by this lovely little boy:

He drinks his milk while I am changing his diaper. I have come to realize that Jacob is starting to outgrow his changing table (hence the feet hanging over the side!) :( Where has my baby gone??
The first thing Jacob usually wants to do after he gets up is read books! I love this about him!

9:15am: My part time job (that I work from home Tues-Fri) requires me to be a part of a weekly online staff meeting on Monday mornings. On this day, because Jacob got up so late, I move between listening to/participating in the meeting and feeding him breakfast. His breakfast on this day consisted of a banana & some Life cereal, along with more milk in the sippy cup. I also gobble down the breakfast of champions (coffee & a Pop-tart) in between my other tasks.

Once Jacob is done eating, he kindly plays independently in the living room. He also watches his favorite video - Baby Genius's Favorite Nursery Rhymes (which we have had on loan from the library for a long time) until I finish my meeting.

10:20am: My meeting ends, I get Jacob dressed and we leave to go to the playground. My playgroup is supposed to be meeting there and Jacob and I are both excited to get out of the house!

10:30am: For some reason, no one else is at the playground today. I think Monday mornings are hard for some people and others have kiddos that go to preschool that day. Nonetheless, Jacob and I enjoy the outside time and he enjoys swinging and going down the slide. I forgot to take my camera with me, but I did have my Flip video camera in my purse.

11:15am: Jacob starts getting bored at the playground (and I am getting hot!). 85 degrees in October?!

so we leave, stop by CVS and then the grocery store. I only have a few things that I need to get so I let Jacob sit/stand in the cart part instead of sitting in the child seat. Yes, I do realize that this can be dangerous (and judging from the looks I got, so do many other people!), but I don't push the cart too fast and I also hold on to him while we are moving so that he doesn't fall. He is happier this way and that usually makes our trips a little more pleasant!

12:30pm: We have been at the grocery store now for about 45 mins. and the few things that I was going to buy have turned into half a cart full. (I just couldn't pass up some of the sales they were having!!) I am in line and there are three people with pretty full carts ahead of me. Jacob is now hungry and getting tired and has decided that he doesn't want to be in the cart or in the child seat or to be held. He wants to get down and walk around. I put him down for a split second and he runs down one of the aisles. I grab him and he proceeds to scream and cry and flail this arms. You would have thought he was being tortured!! I get a lot of stares and I try to remain calm all while sweating my behind off (remember, it is 85 degrees outside!!)

Thankfully, after probably only a minute or so of this (which felt much longer!), a very nice manager comes over and tells me that she has opened a new line for me. She pushes my cart over to the lane, unloads all of my groceries onto the conveyor belt, helps the cashier bag them and puts them all back into my cart. She also distracts Jacob just long enough so I can swipe my card and pay and we are out of there!

12:45pm: We get home and I unload the car while Jake finishes a snack of craisins in his car seat. I then get him inside and feed him lunch. He eats half a pb&j sandwich, some cheese and pieces of fig.

While he is eating, I put away the perishable groceries (and decide to clean one of the refrigerator shelves that really needs cleaning!). Once Jacob is done, he hands me his cup to say "Done mama!"

1pm: Jacob sees some books on the counter that were never put back on his book shelf after our weekend trip. We take them into his room and read a few before he goes down for his nap.

1:15pm: Jacob is in his crib. I make myself lunch - pb&j and chocolate milk. I am being so healthy today!!

I sit down at the kitchen table and while I am eating my sandwich, I....check email, facebook, chat with a co-worker on IM, balance the checkbook, look up recipes that I want to try and stare blankly out the window and think about all the things that I should be doing.

2pm: The home phone rings (just a solicitor) and it reminds me that I should get up and do something productive while Jacob is asleep. I clean up the lunch stuff, put away the rest of the groceries and switch the laundry (and remember to be thankful that my laundry room is next to the kitchen which is next to the bedroom. No stairs and just a few steps to take between all of these places! Sometimes having a small house is a good thing!). I fold the laundry while I watch Reality TV shows that I have DVRed. I, again, think about the things I should be doing but decide to continue watching TV until Jacob wakes up.

3:30pm: Jacob is awake. I heat up his milk and go in to his room to get him. He starts acting really goofy in his crib so I go grab the video camera. This goes on for about 10 mins. I love when he is in a good mood after his nap!

3:45pm: Jacob plays independently while I switch/fold laundry (we were away for the weekend and I swear my laundry piles doubled while I was gone!!!). I contemplate going for a walk, but it is still so hot outside so I decide against it.

4:45pm: I ask Jacob if he wants to go outside and play. He runs to the laundry room to get his shoes and he also brings me mine. I guess his answer is yes!

We go outside and Jacob swings...
And goes down the slide on his stomach (laughing the whole way down!)...
I try to get a pic of the two of us...
He plays with a rain gauge that we had in our front yard...
And his favorite thing to do while we are outside - watch cars go by!
5:55pm: Keith gets home from work (I meant to take a picture of him, but I forgot. Oops!). He takes Jacob out on the back deck with him while he grills the steaks we are having for dinner (one of the things I found on sale at Food Lion!). I stay inside and manage the other dinner items (mashed sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms & peas).

6:30pm: Dinner is served and we decide to eat at the patio table on the back deck. The temperature has gone down and it is a really beautiful night! Unfortunately, we need to eat fast because it starts getting dark by 7pm.

7pm: I clean up the dinner dishes while Keith gives Jacob a bath.

I always give Keith a choice of what he wants to do and he usually chooses bath over clean-up. This is fine with me since I have been with Jacob all day. And, I think it's nice for them to have some Daddy-Son time!

7:30pm: I clean up the bathroom after Jacob's bath & pick up his toys that have somehow gotten strewn all over the house! Keith reads stories, brushes Jacob's teeth and puts him to bed.

8pm: Cleanup is done and Jacob is asleep. Keith and I decide to put up our outdoor Halloween decorations (lights on the front porch and lighted pumpkins around the front door). We have fun decorating and thankfully only break two bulbs in the process. Oops!

I also set up some indoor Halloween decorations that my grandma sent me. These were all hers that she doesn't use anymore, so she passed them on to me. She knows how much Keith and I love decorations!!

When I opened up the bin that she sent them in, the smell of her attic took me back 25 years! I have such wonderful memories of her house, but since she lives 500 miles away, I don't get to spend a lot of time there anymore!

9pm: We finish decorating. I check email and facebook and upload pictures & video from the weekend.

10pm: Keith goes into the bedroom to watch Hawaii 5-0 since I am watching my DVRed Reality shows (I am hooked on a bunch of them and I never feel like I have time to watch them!!)

10:45pm: Keith comes out from the bedroom to tell me Goodnight since he keeps falling asleep watching TV. I tell him that I will be right in to join him in bed, but it is

11:30pm before I actually make my way to the bedroom. At least I was able to catch up on a few of my shows!!

My fearless little monkey

Jacob amazes me every day with the new things he can say and do. He is becoming more and more of a little boy and it seems like he is picking up new skills and abilities all the time!! He is probably just doing exactly what other 16 month olds are doing, but to me, it is amazing! :)

It didn't take him long (just a few days) to figure out how to climb up on his new playset. He was a little unsteady at first, but now he can go up both the steps and the ropes. He loves to climb on everything - I call him "my little monkey".

As you can see from this video, Jacob is also pretty fearless. Just when I thought he had the concept of depth perception figured out, he decides to just step off the ledge. I think he just wants to do whatever gets a rise out of Mommy! Ahhh...toddlerhood!

I taught him to go down the slide on his tummy (because he doesn't understand how to sit and slide yet!). He had done it a few times before I got the video camera out, but of course, once I start shooting video, he wants to just "walk" down the slide. Silly boy! As you can see, he thinks it is hysterical!!

(Sorry about the chiming noise that you hear at one point in the video. It is my cell phone - which was in my pocket - receiving a text message from my Mom!)