A Day in the Life: Summer Edition

This Day in the Life post is sponsored by Munchkin, one of my very favorite brands for baby and children’s products that we use every single day. 

It’s been about six months since I did a Day in the Life post and our schedule has changed again because the girls are all out school for the summer. I just picked a day at random to record and this time I got a pretty crazy one (why do children not want to sleep through the night?).

 

4:10 a.m. Star wakes up crying. I go in to her room, tuck her back in, and turn her CD player on quietly. I go to the bathroom, turn on the fan since it’s pretty warm in our room, and try to fall back asleep.

4:20 a.m. Star’s at our door, crying again. Bart takes her back to bed, snuggles her for a minutes and then comes back to bed.

4:35 a.m. Star’s back at my side of the bed, crying about how she doesn’t want to be alone. I take her back to her room, read her one book (you better believe I abridge like crazy) and tuck her in, ignoring her pleas for “just one more book.” I come back to bed and turn off the 6:45 a.m. alarm on my phone because this night is going very poorly.

5:30(ish) a.m. Star’s back in our room and because it’s light outside and I have no idea what time it is, but hoping it’s at least 7:00 a.m., I let her climb into bed with us, where she falls instantly asleep.

6:18 a.m. The baby starts crying. What is this madness?! I get up and get on my running clothes because trying to get more sleep seems like an exercise in futility. I spend about 10 minutes checking looking at Instagram and my email (I know you shouldn’t look at your phone first thing, but it’s a habit I’m finding very hard to break) and by this time, Tally seems to be back asleep.

6:30 a.m. I head out on a run, listening to an audiobook as I go.

6:55 a.m. Back home and the house is quiet. Since everyone is still sleeping, I sit down at my computer in my office for a few minutes to type out everything so far for this post.

7:05 a.m. I thought I heard Tally crying, but when I turn on the baby monitor on my desk, she seems to still be sleeping. Apparently last night’s terrible sleep is going straight to my brain. I post a couple of InstaStories.

7:15 a.m. Okay, not losing my mind. She is awake, just quietly rolling around in her crib. Since she’s happy and not even standing up yet, I start working on this Activity Book post.

7:25 a.m. She’s fully awake now, so I go grab her out of her crib and take her into the kitchen to get some breakfast. She starts out with a banana while I unload the dishwasher and water the plants. Then she’s ready for a bowl of oatmeal with raspberries. This is going to be messy. But at least the suction bowl means it’ll stay put.

7:40 a.m. I start working on dinner for tonight. The beef is supposed to marinate and then be grilled, but I decide to just dump it all in the crockpot instead. Crossing my fingers it turns out okay.

8:00 a.m. Bart comes out of the bedroom with Star who has just woken up and the big girls wander in as well. Bart heads back in to shower and get ready for work, and I keep prepping for dinner. I make some hummus and a Greek salad and tzatziki sauce. Making all the components from scratch it turning out to be kind of a pain. The girls help by chopping vegetables and peeling chickpeas, then curl up on the couch together with an activity book while I finish up. I text some of the girls’ friends to see if they can come play today.

8:30 a.m. Bart comes out and cleans up Tally, who has indeed made a giant mess with her oatmeal, before heading to work.

8:45 a.m. Tally wants to be held, so I clean up the giant mess I’ve made in the kitchen with one hand, and then change her diaper and get her dressed. We read a book together and then I put her down for a nap.

9:00 a.m. I get the three older girls breakfast and finish cleaning up the kitchen.

9:15 a.m. I head into the bathroom to take a shower. I get dressed and put on my makeup and curl my hair and make the bed.

9:50 a.m. The girls have disappeared into the playroom and seem to be playing happily, so I sneak into my office to catch up on this post and I can see on the baby monitor that Tally is still rolling around in her crib. Has she already fallen asleep and woke up quickly? Or has she still not fallen asleep? The way she’s playing with her pacifier and rubbing her head makes me think she hasn’t fallen asleep yet. This transition between one nap and two is brutal for everyone.

10:05 a.m. Okay, I think she’s falling asleep now. I plow through my emails and try to solve a website issue (unsuccessfully, naturally)

10:15 a.m. Nope, still awake but she’s acting SO tired in there, I don’t want to go get her up. I’ll give her 10 more minutes. I make sure the older girls are all dressed and do all of their hair.

10:30 a.m. I go into get the baby and turns out she’s got a really dirty diaper. Changed and back in bed. Ella’s friend arrives to play and the girls run down to play in the playroom.

10:45 a.m. When I’m throwing the diaper away outside, I remember the beach towels in the car from yesterday’s pool trip, so I grab them and throw them in the wash along with a few baby outfits that have been soaking in stain remover.

10:45 a.m. I finally make myself some breakfast (more like lunch since I make myself a ham sandwich). Star comes up and begs for a snack, but I remind her that she ate breakfast and we only eat breakfast ONCE. She asks for a glass of milk and I give it to her, which she immediately spills all down her front and on the floor. I clean it up and send her down to play with the girls.

11:00 a.m. I am basically dying of fatigue and I can tell that my patience is pretty much non-existent at this point. With the baby napping (finally!) and the girls all playing pleasantly together, I lie down on my bed with my book and in about a quarter of a page, I’ve drifted off.

11:30 a.m. I wake up and about 10 seconds later, the girls come in to tell me that they were playing Sardines and accidentally ripped the curtain rods out of the family room wall. Superb. I take the remaining curtain rods off so that it doesn’t pull out from the uneven weight and send them downstairs to clean up the giant mess they’ve made.

11:45 a.m. I look at Instagram and my email.

12:00 p.m. I can feel myself spiraling into grumpiness, even with a brief nap, after the horrible night’s sleep, the spilled milk and the curtains. I go downstairs and help the girls finish cleaning up, which makes me feel a little better.

12:15 p.m. Ani’s room is the usual heap of junk (she loves to tinker and stays up so late at night working on beading projects and yarn braids) and her floor is covered with bits of stuff. I take a garbage bag down, throw about forty million things away, and straighten up a little.

12:30 p.m. I make sandwiches for each of the girls and put them on their Munchkin Splash Plates with yogurt smoothies, strawberries, and chips and then call them up.

12:45 p.m. While they eat at the bar, I put the towels and laundry in the dryer and then update this post. The baby is still snoozing peacefully which means it’s going to be a very late quiet time/work time/second nap today.

1:00 p.m. Star comes in and needs to go the bathroom. While she’s going, I grab the cleaning supplies and clean the mirror and counter, then do the toilet when she’s done. Since I have everything out, I figure I might as well give the other two bathrooms a quick clean too.

1:20 p.m. Everyone is done eating, so I direct clean-up and send them down to finish their game before it’s time to take the friend home and run some errands.

1:45 p.m. The baby finally wakes up, so we all load into the car and drop off Ella’s friend and then run to the grocery store to pick up some pita bread for dinner (they were out when I did grocery pick-up on Monday) and then pick up one of Ani’s friends and drop a book off at the library that’s due. The baby is getting pretty hungry since she hasn’t eaten since breakfast and she fusses almost the whole way home.

3:05 p.m. Home! I set Tally up in her chair with a little food and make a chocolate banana smoothie for snack (I put her chocolate smoothie in one of these cups because the straw means she can actually get it out but it won’t get all over her). And. . . . my meat in the crockpot has definitely gotten a little on the crispy side because it’s just that kind of day today. I put it in the fridge, crossing my fingers that it’ll still be edible when dinner rolls around.

3:15 p.m. The girls are all playing nicely including the baby, so I settle in to get some work done.

4:00 p.m. Tally wanders in and wants to sit on my lap and bang on the computer. I do a couple of InstaStories.

4:10 p.m. Tally gets down and heads back out and I get back to work.

4:20 p.m. Tally brings in a book, so I sit down on the floor and read it to her a couple of times. Then we walk outside to get the mail and bring it in. Time to just give up on any more work for the day until they’re in bed.

4:30 p.m. Star is arguing with Ani and her friend over Chutes and Ladders, (namely that Star knocked all the pieces off the board) so I take Star and Tally into the family room and settle in with a stack of library books. Of course, all the other girls are drawn in and pretty soon all five girls are crowded around listening.

4:45 p.m. Ani’s friend’s dad shows up to pick her up.

4:50 p.m. We read some more books and then play a couple of rounds of Dutch Blitz, all of which I lose horrendously.

5:05 p.m. I chat with Bart for a few minutes as he’s wrapping up work and he says to expect him for dinner around 5:45.

5:15 p.m. The witching hour is in full steam and Tally only wants to be held (she’s extra tired, thanks to only having one nap). The two big girls play a card game together while I pick up the family room a little and start getting dinner on the table and the table set. It’s pretty quick because I prepped everything this morning, although when I cut up my pineapple, I discover it’s gone bad. Okay, mango it is.

5:55 p.m. Bart’s here and we settle in for dinner. It’s a rough start and I’m feeling totally frazzled, but our food is delicious and everyone calms down as the meal gets underway.

6:30 p.m. Bart starts on dishes and I get the baby ready for bed and send the big girls to their rooms to get on their pajamas and brush their teeth. We debated baths, but after how tired everyone seems, we decide to go straight for bedtime instead.

6:45 p.m. The baby is down for the night and we do scriptures and prayers with the other girls.

6:55 p.m. I suddenly remember a series of InstaStories that are due tonight for a contributor gig and Bart helps me quickly shoot those with Star.

7:05 p.m. I read the girls two picture books and then a chapter of The Midnight Gang.

7:20 p.m. Ella and I read a few chapters of the scriptures together and Star quietly plays blocks in Ella’s room while we do.

7:30 p.m. I tuck Star into bed and head into my office to try to catch up on all the work I didn’t get to today. Ani comes in and helps me pick up all the confetti that fell on the floor from a package that came earlier that day and asks if she can have it for an art project. I tell her yes and when it’s all picked up, I give her a big snuggle and send her to bed.

7:40 p.m. I respond to some emails and then catch up on this post.

8:00 p.m. I download the InstaStories I need to send in while Bart goes for a run. Of course, it takes me ten times as long to download them and send them in as it should.

8:40 p.m. Bart gets home and takes a shower. I finish up some last work and change into my pajamas.

9:00 p.m. Time for an episode of The Great British Baking Show.

9:45 p.m. I do some planning for the next day, take off my makeup and we get in bed.

10:05 p.m. After we pray together, Bart goes right to sleep, but I break out my Kindle and read two chapters of When Life Gives You Luluemons before I turn out the light and go to sleep too.

10:15 p.m. Goodnight – definitely crossing my fingers for everyone to sleep through the night this time (spoiler: they did! And I was much less exhausted the next day).

 

If you’re new to Munchkin, check out their amazing line of children’s products – some of my favorites are these stainless steel miracle cups (they never spill and they are basically like magic) and mold-free bath toys so you don’t have to worry about those squeeze toys getting all gross inside! 

Photos by Christie Knight Photography