2014: An 8yr old and a 3.5yr old #SAHM #motherhood #whatdoyoudoallday #kids
It's almost the end of another year and I nearly forgot to do a post for 2014!
How did the year just fly by?!?
Probably because I took on being our PTA Treasurer again, I continue to support the in-class CommonCoreGRIN reading groups (Wednesday and Friday mornings), and because I turned 35 this year, I decided this was the year I would get in-shape so I spend most mornings at the gym.
Phew!
So, what's our schedule like these days with an 8yr old and a 3.5yr old?
Pretty darn great because Emily is 90% self-sufficient and eager to get her list done so she has play time (screen time, computer/iPad time, free play outside, etc.) and Nolan has become quite the little articulate communicator thus, much easier to direct through the day.
7:00am - our alarm goes off and David jumps out of bed to wake up Emily. I'm not so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so I hit snooze until at least 7:30am most days. :) This only works because I pack lunches the night before and help Emily lay out her clothes the night before so, combined with her age and maturity, she needs very little help from us to get ready for school each morning. David starts breakfast right away: biscuits, bacon, fruit, yogurt is a staple as well as pancakes or french toast or some corn/rice cereal. Once Emily's morning "list" (literally a list of things for her to do like get dressed, brush her teeth, make her bed, etc.) is complete, she comes to eat breakfast while I throw on my workout clothes and brush my teeth.
8:10am - I walk Emily to school, check the PTA box for Treasurer items, then, head home to jump in the car and go to the gym. On Wednesdays and Fridays I stay at the school for 30 minutes to help lead reading groups then, go to the gym. While I'm working out, David gets ready for his day, gets Nolan up, and gets Nolan ready for the day including getting him dressed, giving him breakfast, brushing his teeth, and prompting him to use the potty. Oh yes, we've entered potty-training territory around here! Then, it's play time with Daddy. David really enjoys playing with Nolan during this hour or more while waiting for me to get home so he can head off to work. What special, quality time for them both. Depending on how long I will be and the weather, they often take off on scooters around the neighborhood, Nolan's favorite.
10:30am - I'm typically home from the gym by this time and Nolan is ready to head off for the day so, after a quick shower and change of clothes, we're off. He has outgrown Wee Play (insert super sad face here) so instead we visit any number of local parks, our favorite children's museums, the zoo (we're members!), or an indoor play place OR we ride his scooter around our neighborhood for about an hour, run errands, play in our backyard, or, more recently, attend a Lil Kickers soccer class or Tumbling class for Preschoolers. He's going to Preschool in the fall of 2015 so I'm really soaking up every day I have him here at home with me this year and trying to find fun activities we can do together.
1:00pm - I still aim to have us home around lunch time (we don't eat lunch out but I do pack him a lunch he can eat while we are out or in the car on the way home often) and put Nolan down for a nap every day; however, he has started skipping his nap about two to three times each week. It's just that time, I guess! I leave him in his crib (yep, I said crib) for an hour regardless. I use this time to RELAX. Seriously, I do nothing that doesn't benefit me: I read, watch television, call Gram, take a nap (my new thing), piddle around in the garden, blog, and catch up on Facebook and Pinterest. On the days he doesn't nap, I do my relaxing after the kids are in bed. Without a nap Nolan goes to bed two hours earlier- he can crash and burn around 4pm but I've noticed that if I keep him busy, it's less intense.
3:00pm - We walk down to pick up Emily from school and come straight home. Lately, the playground at her school has been like Lord of the Flies and I can't watch Nolan nor is he safe to teeter around amongst so many bigger kids. We play in the backyard or in the playroom on poor weather days. On warmer days I take them to the pool at the gym or a nearby park, which they really love!
5:00pm - I begin dinner while Emily sits down at our family computer (in a communal space, our kitchen) to do her homework. It takes 10-15 minutes per night if we tackle a little each day. Nolan happily plays with his cars, builds with his train set, digs around in Kinetic sand, draws, puts together puzzles or bangs around on his many musical instruments. He's happy playing independently for this short period of time and is fairly quiet, which can be a challenge for Emily to focus if he's not. We've discussed moving a desk into her room but she doesn't want that as she's too removed from the family. I get that.
6:00pm - The kids eat and Emily heads off to do her evening "list" (same types of things like put on PJs, wash her face and hands OR take a shower, clean room, etc.) while I either play with Nolan or work on putting him to bed if he didn't take a nap that day. If he's not going to bed, we all read books together in the playroom and I let Emily choose mainly so she can read to us.
6:00-7:00pm - Two nights a week I have an evening class at the gym where I drop them in the childcare center. Then we head straight home to get into our PJs and go to bed.
7:30pm - Lights out for Emily. Her bedtime is much earlier this year because we noticed she's taking a little time to actually settle and fall asleep and waking up tired and grouchy on nights we put her to bed at 8:30pm.
8:30pm - On days Nolan does nap, he goes to bed about 9pm so I have him in bed about 8:30pm. It's hard to keep him quiet so Emily can fall asleep so I have actually started to prefer that he not take a nap so he can be the first one in bed. :) I try to keep him upstairs in his room, playing puzzles, reading books and building with Legos.
Once the kids are tucked in, I finish dinner for David and I, clean up the house, work on any PTA stuff, take a bath and flop on the couch!
10:30pm - My new bedtime. No matter how late David is working or out playing soccer, no matter how much cleaning I should be doing or how much work I have to do with the PTA, I've decided to end my nights at 10:30pm. Period. I'm so much happier for it! :) I typically get offline and get in bed with a book about 10pm.
Life doesn't feel so hectic this year, probably because my tasks are a repeat of last year and Nolan is getting older and sweeter by the month, and I'm so grateful!
How did the year just fly by?!?
Probably because I took on being our PTA Treasurer again, I continue to support the in-class CommonCoreGRIN reading groups (Wednesday and Friday mornings), and because I turned 35 this year, I decided this was the year I would get in-shape so I spend most mornings at the gym.
Phew!
So, what's our schedule like these days with an 8yr old and a 3.5yr old?
Pretty darn great because Emily is 90% self-sufficient and eager to get her list done so she has play time (screen time, computer/iPad time, free play outside, etc.) and Nolan has become quite the little articulate communicator thus, much easier to direct through the day.
7:00am - our alarm goes off and David jumps out of bed to wake up Emily. I'm not so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so I hit snooze until at least 7:30am most days. :) This only works because I pack lunches the night before and help Emily lay out her clothes the night before so, combined with her age and maturity, she needs very little help from us to get ready for school each morning. David starts breakfast right away: biscuits, bacon, fruit, yogurt is a staple as well as pancakes or french toast or some corn/rice cereal. Once Emily's morning "list" (literally a list of things for her to do like get dressed, brush her teeth, make her bed, etc.) is complete, she comes to eat breakfast while I throw on my workout clothes and brush my teeth.
8:10am - I walk Emily to school, check the PTA box for Treasurer items, then, head home to jump in the car and go to the gym. On Wednesdays and Fridays I stay at the school for 30 minutes to help lead reading groups then, go to the gym. While I'm working out, David gets ready for his day, gets Nolan up, and gets Nolan ready for the day including getting him dressed, giving him breakfast, brushing his teeth, and prompting him to use the potty. Oh yes, we've entered potty-training territory around here! Then, it's play time with Daddy. David really enjoys playing with Nolan during this hour or more while waiting for me to get home so he can head off to work. What special, quality time for them both. Depending on how long I will be and the weather, they often take off on scooters around the neighborhood, Nolan's favorite.
10:30am - I'm typically home from the gym by this time and Nolan is ready to head off for the day so, after a quick shower and change of clothes, we're off. He has outgrown Wee Play (insert super sad face here) so instead we visit any number of local parks, our favorite children's museums, the zoo (we're members!), or an indoor play place OR we ride his scooter around our neighborhood for about an hour, run errands, play in our backyard, or, more recently, attend a Lil Kickers soccer class or Tumbling class for Preschoolers. He's going to Preschool in the fall of 2015 so I'm really soaking up every day I have him here at home with me this year and trying to find fun activities we can do together.
1:00pm - I still aim to have us home around lunch time (we don't eat lunch out but I do pack him a lunch he can eat while we are out or in the car on the way home often) and put Nolan down for a nap every day; however, he has started skipping his nap about two to three times each week. It's just that time, I guess! I leave him in his crib (yep, I said crib) for an hour regardless. I use this time to RELAX. Seriously, I do nothing that doesn't benefit me: I read, watch television, call Gram, take a nap (my new thing), piddle around in the garden, blog, and catch up on Facebook and Pinterest. On the days he doesn't nap, I do my relaxing after the kids are in bed. Without a nap Nolan goes to bed two hours earlier- he can crash and burn around 4pm but I've noticed that if I keep him busy, it's less intense.
3:00pm - We walk down to pick up Emily from school and come straight home. Lately, the playground at her school has been like Lord of the Flies and I can't watch Nolan nor is he safe to teeter around amongst so many bigger kids. We play in the backyard or in the playroom on poor weather days. On warmer days I take them to the pool at the gym or a nearby park, which they really love!
5:00pm - I begin dinner while Emily sits down at our family computer (in a communal space, our kitchen) to do her homework. It takes 10-15 minutes per night if we tackle a little each day. Nolan happily plays with his cars, builds with his train set, digs around in Kinetic sand, draws, puts together puzzles or bangs around on his many musical instruments. He's happy playing independently for this short period of time and is fairly quiet, which can be a challenge for Emily to focus if he's not. We've discussed moving a desk into her room but she doesn't want that as she's too removed from the family. I get that.
6:00pm - The kids eat and Emily heads off to do her evening "list" (same types of things like put on PJs, wash her face and hands OR take a shower, clean room, etc.) while I either play with Nolan or work on putting him to bed if he didn't take a nap that day. If he's not going to bed, we all read books together in the playroom and I let Emily choose mainly so she can read to us.
6:00-7:00pm - Two nights a week I have an evening class at the gym where I drop them in the childcare center. Then we head straight home to get into our PJs and go to bed.
7:30pm - Lights out for Emily. Her bedtime is much earlier this year because we noticed she's taking a little time to actually settle and fall asleep and waking up tired and grouchy on nights we put her to bed at 8:30pm.
8:30pm - On days Nolan does nap, he goes to bed about 9pm so I have him in bed about 8:30pm. It's hard to keep him quiet so Emily can fall asleep so I have actually started to prefer that he not take a nap so he can be the first one in bed. :) I try to keep him upstairs in his room, playing puzzles, reading books and building with Legos.
Once the kids are tucked in, I finish dinner for David and I, clean up the house, work on any PTA stuff, take a bath and flop on the couch!
10:30pm - My new bedtime. No matter how late David is working or out playing soccer, no matter how much cleaning I should be doing or how much work I have to do with the PTA, I've decided to end my nights at 10:30pm. Period. I'm so much happier for it! :) I typically get offline and get in bed with a book about 10pm.
Life doesn't feel so hectic this year, probably because my tasks are a repeat of last year and Nolan is getting older and sweeter by the month, and I'm so grateful!
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