Instead of 7 Quick Links Friday, I just had to jump on this neat linky writing prompt from RambleRamble, which I learned about from Jennie at She Likes Purple.

It’s just like it sounds… the story of my typical day. I know it’s SO exciting, so try to stay awake!

*NOTE: I did not include checking email, blogs, and Twitter in this day. Please go ahead and assume I am doing those things nonstop whenever it is safe to do so, from my iPhone*

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Technically, a day begins at 12:01am so I have to start with my wake-ups with the kids…

1 or 2am: Baby wakes up crying, usually isn’t hungry so I go in, move her out of the room she shares with her brother, and put her into the Pack N Play in the office to keep her from waking him up. If I am lucky, she goes back to sleep without eating. If I’m not, I bring her into our bed to nurse.

3 or 4am: Baby wakes again, this time hungry for real. If she’s not already in our bed, I bring her in and nurse her. We fall asleep but she starts kicking me in the guts and the head which I try to ignore for a while but eventually she takes over the entire bed, so…

5am: I move the baby back into the Pack N Play in the office. Sometimes I have to change her diaper if that is the cause of the squirming. I try to go back to sleep.

What I SHOULD do is go ahead and take a shower, and sometimes I do if I’ve managed to sleep through the baby kicking me and it’s closer to 6am when I move her. Because if I can get a shower before the toddler wakes up, I am much more likely to be able to fix my hair and do my makeup, and remember deodorant. Seriously, the likelihood that I will forget my deodorant is significantly higher if I am attempting to dress while the toddler is awake and/or watching me.

6:30 or so: Toddler wakes up, starts banging on the door and yelling.

6:45: We realize we have to stop ignoring him and one of us goes to get him. The other one gets to shower (that person WINS).

7ish: We put the toddler in the booster and the baby in the high chair (if the baby is awake) and proceed to alternate between cooking eggs and throwing things at the toddler hoping he will eat them. Also someone feeds the baby some kind of solid food. If I’m the one that didn’t get a shower, I frantically eat and clean up the kitchen at the same time because I want to shower before Christian leaves.

7:45 or 8: Toddler goes to drink his milk in front of the TV, the baby crawls around on the floor. Whoever did not get to take a shower earlier takes one now. If it’s me, Christian stays with the kids in the living room. If it’s him, I go back and forth between the kids and cleaning up the kitchen. Somebody changes the toddler’s diaper while he is temporarily immobile in front of the TV.

8:30: Christian leaves for work and I combo feed the baby while the toddler runs around. I throw things in the laundry and pack lunches if we’re going somewhere.

9:30 or 10ish: We go somewhere. Anywhere. The goal is to make the toddler as tired as possible. We go to the store, to a playdate, to the play area at the mall, to the mat room at church. When it’s not 1 million degrees outside we would go to the park. While we are out, the baby falls asleep and has her morning nap. Or two. I have no idea what her sleep schedule is.

11ish: Wherever we are, I combo feed the baby again. Sometimes while chasing the toddler around somewhere, sometimes in the car.

12ish: We either eat a lunch that I have packed or we come home for lunch. If we are home, I am doing laundry again while we are eating.

12:30-1:00pm: Toddler gets milk again while I clean up lunch and maybe fold some laundry or steal some time on the computer. I secure the baby into the exersaucer or Pack N Play or bring her with us into the crib their room while I read the toddler 2-3 books in the glider with his blankie.

1:00-1:30: I take the baby with me and leave the toddler in his room for a nap. Hopefully the nap will happen. I watch him on the video monitor and when he gets out of his bed, I go back in and put him back.

2:00: If the toddler is going to nap, he should be asleep by now. If he has decided to skip his nap, he is still awake and will not be going to sleep. I combo feed the baby again and try to get her to sleep.

2:30: If the baby is going to nap, she should be asleep by now. She will nap for 30 minutes and then be up. I have 30 minutes to either try and get something done or nap myself.

Unless the toddler has decided not to nap, in which case I will still be going in there every 5 minutes putting him BACK into his bed.

3:00: The baby is up again and if the toddler has decided not to nap today, I let him up also because there is no point in keeping him in there if he isn’t going to nap. If he isn’t napping today then we play together until 5pm or something. I try to get him to play on his own so I can work on the computer while they play. This works about 50% of the time.

If the toddler IS napping today, the baby plays on the floor and I GET TO WORK! Or get something done like folding laundry or sewing. Whatever I do, I can’t leave her direct line of sight or she freaks out and screams so loudly that it wakes the toddler.

3:30: Sometimes I get to talk to Millie on the phone or make phone calls like doctor appointments or medical insurance calls. If no one is napping, the screaming children cut conversation short. If everyone is napping, sometimes I sleep through Millie’s call.

4:00: Hopefully, if this is a napping day for the toddler, I can try and get some prep work for dinner started. Because the toddler HATES it when I work in the kitchen. He yells and throws his body between me and the counter the entire time I try to cook, so there is no point in trying to cook while he is awake.

If this was not a napping day, I will not be preparing a meal, I will be falling back on my various pre-prepared options.

5:00-5:30: The toddler wakes up from his nap if he had one, and the kids have dinner.

6:00: The toddler gets milk and more TV, I combo feed the baby. I let her play on the floor or the bouncy while I finish preparing dinner for Christian and I. I can do this because the toddler is distracted by the TV and doesn’t realize I am in the kitchen.

6:30 – 7: DADDY IS HOME! I try to have food ready for us to eat while the kids play around us. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. If it does, we eat. If it doesn’t, we’ll eat after they go to bed.

7:00 – 8:00: Daddy does baths and all the toddler stuff. He brings the toddler into the bath and I bring the baby. They bathe together now, it’s really cute. The baby doesn’t stay in there long, so I take her out and combo feed her while the boys play in the bathroom for at least 30 more minutes.

8ish: Everybody comes into our bedroom when baths are over and plays for a while. Then the boys go into the kids’ room to read stories and I walk around in the dark hallway wearing the baby in the Ergo until she is sleepy or asleep.

8:30-9:30: The kids take turns crying and waking each other up. Christian and I take turns eating (if we hadn’t earlier) and going in to put the toddler back to bed every time he gets up.

9:30-11: One would expect the kids to both be asleep, but who the heck knows?! This is our last chance to eat if we didn’t get to eat earlier. I usually have to do more work. Christian is usually on the iPad or computer or watching those pundit guys yell at each other on TV. Sometimes we get to hang out together, and that is nice.

11:00pm: The baby wakes up one last time to eat. Why does she do this?! I know she doesn’t need it. But whatever. I have to feed her so she won’t wake the toddler.

11:30pm: I go to sleep ASAP because I am going to be up again in 2 hours…

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There you go, isn’t that the most exciting day ever?

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Other entries in the bloghop: