This is a sponsored post brought to you by Wendy’s new Waffle Cone Frosty.
I’ve never done a day in the life kinda post before. I just figured that it would possibly be the most boring thing ever. EVER. I mean, why would anyone in their right mind want to hear about what a stay at home mom does during the day with her two kids and playdates and cleaning and cooking and such.
So I get it if this is not for you. I get it. Truly. And obviously…this is just one day that I chose to chronicle. More for me than anything. So that I can look back at it in a month or a year or five, ten, twenty years and see a tiny flash of my used-to-be life. And to be perfectly honest…because Wendy’s sponsored this post, they made it happen. This is part of their Sweet made Sweeter promotion…which is about their new Waffle Cone Frosty but honestly, it makes so much sense to me as a mom for this post because sometimes it really is the little things like a quiet moment, or a kind gesture, or even a special treat that make our life so much better. It should be noted that every day is different for us. Every day is new and fresh with it’s own challenges and lows and highs and joys. It’s real. It’s not always perfect. But it’s ours.
7:15 am. Weston wakes me up by making tooting noises with his paci. Weston co-sleeps and usually Will sneaks into our bed during the early morning hours if he has nightmares, so both boys are in my bed this morning. I pick up Weston and nurse him over in the chair and leave Will to keep sleeping. I don’t even remember Jer giving me a kiss in the morning to say goodbye, which means that I was OUT. I put Weston in the jumper and I hop in the shower.
8:00 am. Will wakes up and he immediately asks to go to the bathroom. I am so proud of him for potty training so easily…and this morning I say a thankful prayer that I don’t have to change the sheets. We all head downstairs.
8:15 am. I start breakfast and the boys play on the blanket and the train table in the living room. It’s just eggs and toast today so it’s literally ready in three minutes time.
8:20 am. I sit Weston in the walker and Will and I sit down to eat. I shove the food in my mouth because it seems like Weston decided the blanket was more comfortable. I sit him back down on the blanket to find the entire back of my arm is wet.
8:30 am. I finish cleaning up Weston’s blow-out. Curses on the fact that the laundry room is still out of commission. Throw his jammies into the potty to soak and bundle everything else to put in the wash later.
9:00 am. Start Will on his ‘school’ while I wrap on Weston and do the dishes and try to do a round of picking up/vacuuming/dusting between helping Will. Today his school involves two pages in his activity book (which he needs my help), doing some lacing cards, and playing with his ‘sorting elephants’.
9:30 am. I’m pooped already. Will’s mentally done and just wants to play cars so I put all the ‘school’ stuff away and we all sit on the floor to play/read/sing/crash stuff. Weston is learning to crawl so I grab my camera. The slow crawl is one of my favorite sweet moments in a baby’s life.
10:00 am. Will’s independently playing so I nurse Weston again and then get up and start gathering supplies for my morning project.
10:30 am. Weston goes down for his morning nap. I want to paint the laundry room ceiling so I encourage Will to play right outside the door with his rice box (it’s a giant box filled with white rice and he has digger trucks that make a huge mess…but this morning, it’s the price I’m willing to pay for a white ceiling).
11:00 am. I’m done. Will’s bored of the rice and has started “feeding the shoes”…aka putting rice in all the shoes near the door. I set up Will on his bike to ride in the yard while I sweep the garage and fish wet, dirty rice outta Jeremy’s mountain biking shoes.
11:30 am. Our play date friends finally arrive. We try to have play dates at least three times a week and this time it’s with my friend Charity and her kids, Nicky and Natalia. The kids play out in the yard with all the trucks while Charity and I make lunch.
12:30 pm. Weston is awake so we pack up all the stuff we need to head down to the creek. The kids all want the same shovel. There was fuss over the sunscreen. Then Weston tries to eat a handful of sand. And then the kids discover the ‘little fish’ and the waterfall and the smooth stones and all is well. I nurse Weston while my feet are still in the running water. Sweet indeed.
2:00 pm. The kids are starting to get too cranky…looks like we need a change of scenery. We head up to the house and take out the baby pool for them to splash around in. They decide the funnest part is squirting each other in the bum with the hose. Weston munches on some baby puffs followed by five minutes of comfort nursing. He’s getting tired.
3:00 pm. We promised the kids ice cream if they ate their lunch so we head to Wendy’s for a new frosty in a waffle cone. It’s perfect. Weston falls asleep on the way there. We are a rugged looking group…and the little old lady in the back booth is looking at us with big smiles. While we wait for our cones, she exits and tells me that she remembers when her kids were that age and to cherish these times. I promise her I will.
3:40 pm. Hugs all around and the kids are buckled to head home. I remember that I need to stop at Sherwin Williams on the way home for paint samples. By the time I get there, both boys are completely out. I call the store and ask if I can just drive up to the side door and hand them my swatches through the window. They know me by name (aka crazy picky painting lady with two crying kids) so they agreed. I give them all five color names and my debit card and they deliver my samples back out to me. I thank my lucky stars for living in a small town and spend my time in my car emailing.
4:10 pm. I remember the bag of old clothes in my trunk and drop them off at the local thrift store that helps folks with drug and alcohol addictions.
4:15 pm. Finally home. I transfer each sleeping boy upstairs. I walk like a ninja so I can keep them asleep. Both boys sleep the afternoon nap in Will’s room. Then I look around the house. It looks like we were robbed. Nope…no burglary here…just a detonated bomb. I start picking up.
5:00 pm. The house is partially picked up…I’m done with approving comments and reading my favorite bloggers and then I eat a handful of Almond M&M’s. I need something stronger…I stare down the can of Coke in the fridge and settle on a glass of Crystal Light iced tea. I grab a handful of mini foam brushes and my paint samples and head outside.
5:30 pm. The flowers are all watered…the paint is drying for when Jer gets home…the kids wake up and I find both of them in the pack n play (Weston’s bed) playing with their lovies. It’s so cute to see them, that I run to get my camera. I notice Will’s bangs are scraggly – take him outside and do a five second snip. He freaks out….too soon for any post-nap activity, I guess. He insists that he needs a new shirt because the current one has hair sticking to the ice cream drips. One new outfit later, he’s happy as a clam.
6:10 pm. Daddy’s home! All is right with the world!
6:30 pm. I show Jer the paint colors…and the new laundry room ceiling…and the info we need for signing Will up for soccer and preschool for next year. Then Will does his routine of “what I did”….basically a full run down of things Will did that day…sometimes he only repeats what I tell him and sometimes there is some embellishment. Today he told Jer he saw a dinosaur down at the creek and that he peed on an ant. That last one is very well true.
6:45 pm. Jer moves both the washer and dryer back into the laundry room for me. I am amazed at his strength. Then he heads downstairs to do his workout while both boys play cars down there. I get three loads sorted and ready.
7:15 pm. It’s already late and I haven’t started dinner yet. Jer will be done soon and usually he plays with the boys outside while I try to make something. I pull some random goods from the fridge and start googling Pioneer Woman recipes on my phone.
8:00 pm. Dinner is finally finished. I couldn’t make 95% of Pioneer Woman’s recipes because I didn’t have any heavy cream. So I go back to my cooking comfort zone of pasta with chicken in some kind of sauce (this time it was artichokes, mushrooms, white wine, cream cheese and capers). It’s no Pioneer Woman but it’s tasty enough for all of us.
8:45 pm. Immediately following dinner, I nurse Weston and Jer tries to get Will to eat more. Jer tells me all about his plan for Saturday’s mountain biking ride. I tell him about the volunteer opportunities for the women’s group I started. We both dream about how cool it would be to buy a super old house at an auction and renovate it. Then I could use it as a photography studio or rent it out for special events. We both laugh and know it’s just a dream…but a good one.
9:00 pm. Bath time. This is Will’s favorite now that Weston is old enough to sit up. I read the Bearenstain Bears book while the boys play. Jeremy is down stairs cleaning up dinner.
9:30 pm. Jammies are on! Boys are ready and so am I. Will decides he wants Daddy to read and put him down tonight…so I give hugs and kisses and take Weston into our room to nurse while Jer does prayers/books/and songs.
10:00 pm. Weston nurses and is down. I put him down in his pack n play (we moved it back out of Will’s room into our room) to sleep for the night. Then I break out the computer. On the agenda: sorting photos, editing some pics of the boys, answering more emails, approving comments, and starting the post for today. Jer walks in with a tall glass of water for me, two bowls of ice cream for us both and some paperwork for the blog. He starts an old episode of Shark Tank.
10:30 pm. Will walks in with great urgency and tells us he needs to pee. I remember Westons jammies are still soaking in the toilet. I fish them out and throw them in the washing machine while Jer helps Will back to bed.
11:00 pm. Will walks in again to tell us that he sees a dinosaur.
11:30 pm. Will walks in again to give us ‘birthday cards’. They are of course, imaginary. This time, we threaten to take away his tractor. He falls asleep in his teepee. Jeremy is up past his normal bedtime so he kisses me goodnight and heads to bed.
12:00 am. Weston wakes up. I know his teeth are bothering him. I try comfort nursing him but he just gets mad because he’s not hungry. I come to grips with the fact that my blog post won’t be finished…and break out the numbing stuff for his gums. I walk him around for thirty minutes to no avail. Jer gets irritated because he needs to be sleeping. I confess that I am at the end of myself right now…Jer takes Weston so that I can finish signing all the paperwork. Jer has him asleep in under five minutes and heads back to bed.
2:00 am. All Bower boys are asleep and I am still up…this time trying to upload photos to a blog post. I realize I am dozing when I hear Will crying in his room from a nightmare. I go in to check on him and move him into his bed. Then I lay in bed and play three games of Candy Crush on my phone just to get my brain to calm down again and finally fall asleep. I fall asleep swearing to myself that tomorrow I’ll try to get a nap…and send myself a note to wrap the birthday presents/shower presents in the kitchen, clean up the bathrooms for ladies group tomorrow and to send out the thank you notes that have been sitting on my desk for the last two weeks.
4:00 am. Weston starts fussing again and I nurse him in our bed while half asleep. He co-sleeps for the rest of the night.
So that’s it. One little day in the midst of our crazy. I’m sure that most moms out there have their own version of crazy each day . We have triumphs and failures. We get involved and try to stay on top of the mess. We love our partners and our kids and our friends and family. And that in my book is beautiful.
disclaimer – this is a sponsored post by Wendy’s Waffle Cone Frosty. All opinions and memories are 100% mine.