Daily Routine…a day in the life
I’m back! I’ve been radio silent for the last month. The month of April is absolute chaos in our household as LBB and my husband have back to back birthdays in the beginning of the month and my mother-in-law has a birthday at the end of the month. I’m just starting to recover from the birthday bash a few weeks ago. So with that being said, I’m thrilled to be back to writing, and didn’t want the whole month to go by without a post. After chatting with my lifelong BFF, we were talking about ideas for the blog and the notion of daily routines popped up. I’ve always been a fan of reading posts along these lines on other outlets, so I figured I’d throw mine into the mix. When we were chatting about it, it made me giggle, although nothing about my day is interesting or game changing, we all are interested in the secret sauce that makes the machine churn. Particularly, when you throw in children. So here we go, a day in the life of moi. Enjoy!
Morning Routine:
7:00am Wake up (or whenever the rooster crows in her bedroom…i.e. the crack of dawn)
My husband is a gem, and he sleeps like a bird, so he’s taken it as a part of our daily routine to go into LBB’s room in the morning when she gets up, change her out of her ‘sleep undie’ (i.e. her night time pull-up), and set her up with a few books or activities to keep her going in her room until 7am when we pop in to grab her. Anything earlier than 7am just seems unreasonable for most human beings. I for one am not a morning person, so when I hear her singing at 5:50/6am… I can’t deal. So that extra time to wakeup and ‘slowly rise’ makes me a better person for the day.
7:15am Workout
This has become my new norm. I just prefer to get my workouts over with in the morning. This doesn’t happen everyday, when I can cram it in before we take off for the morning, I’ll do it during nap. But I’m just preparing myself for the near future when LBB drops her nap and that mid day break goes away and making it a habit of doing it in the morning. LBB is also getting to the age where she can independently play for longer stretches and she is happy to entertain herself while I’m jumping around doing squats in the living room or biking for 30 minutes. Aymeric is also amazing and takes on breakfast for LBB. So while I’m getting started, they are in the kitchen chowing down on the daily dose of silver dollar pancakes from TJ’s with berries with a side of jus d’orange.
8:00am Breakfast
After I’m properly drenched in sweat, I make my way into the kitchen and prep my morning smoothie and tea with LBB. She loves to count how many strawberries get plopped into the vitamix and sneak a few extra dates for herself as a tax for helping prep. By this point Aymeric has signed off of dad duties and is heading down to the office for work to begin. After I’ve dropped by his fresh smoothie at his office door, I take off for the shower.
8:30am Get Ready
Once I’ve made breakfast and found my equilibrium after my first few sips of tea, we head upstairs to get ready. I shower while LBB putters around in the bathroom, usually dragging toys and displaying them for me. Then I run around like crazy getting dressed and catching a racing toddler who’s not prepared to change for the day. Depending on the day we’re out the door anywhere between 9-9:30am
9:30am Take Off for the Daily Activity
Majority of the mornings in our house we’re out the door by 9:30am. Monday’s we typically have a standing playdate with friends, Tuesday mornings we have The Little Gym at 9am, Wednesday’s changes weekly, Thursday’s is Grandparent Playdates, and Friday we also have a standing Playdate with friends. So we have a range of activities that we set off for in the morning. I personally enjoy getting out of the house daily, and LBB also has the itch to get out too so we’re happy to pack up the car and roll.
Midday Routine:
12:00pm Lunch
Obviously we’re not always eating by 12pm, but majority of the time we are either eating on the go at this point or back from our morning activities and munching on something before we part ways for naptime.
1:00pm Nap
LBB has been napping from 1pm-3pm ish for over a year now. There have been plenty of days where she will even sleep till 4pm, but I go in and wake her up at 4pm if that ever happens. Sleeping past 4pm just makes the evening routine not go to plan. I don’t think there’s a mom out there that doesn’t catch my drift when I say, if that kiddo doesn’t hit the sack at 8pm…I’m done for.
1:15pm Me Time
This varies for me daily. I pack in anything from lunch, write, paperwork or grocery lists, workout and shower if I didn’t get to it in the morning, clean, dinner prep, or if I’m in the middle of a bingable show and I’m feeling the need to chill for a few minutes, I’ll turn on the telly and watch an episode of something. You catch my drift. Whatever I need to get to in the pure blissful silence of the afternoon sans tot, I’m doing it.
3:30pm Wake the Princess and Snack
Again depending on the day, we could be getting in the car for an activity (Tuesday’s at 4pm we have dance) but outside of that, I’m typically in the kitchen prepping for dinner while LBB is eating her snack and puttering around playing or helping me finish cooking.
Evening Routine:
5:30pm Dinner
Yes, we are those people now that eat the early bird special toddler dinner time of 5:15/5:30pm. Gone are the days of late dinners. LBB squeeks if I don’t have dinner on the table by 5:30pm. Those toddler hunger pangs are real, so we all obliged and have early din din.
6pm Post Dinner Playtime
At this point, Aymeric has made his way out of his office, and usually takes on some sort of outside time with LBB while I do post dinner cleanup, or we go out and have some family time. It just depends what we’re in the mood for.
7pm LBB Bedtime Routine Begins
Bath, Jammies, Books, Bed. Throw in your daily prayers and a few songs from mom and dad and we can call it a day for LBB by 8pm. That doesn’t mean she’s asleep at 8pm…but she will sing in her bed or talk to her stuffies until she’s ready to drift off into dreamland.
8pm Parents Night Out
Once 8pm hits, it’s mom and dad’s time to shine. I thrive in those 2-3 hours before bedtime. You’ll typically find me on the couch finishing up whatever I haven’t gotten to for the day or just having a phone scroll in silence. I typically do my NYT crossword puzzle at this point or French Duolingo for 15/20 minutes. Then we find time to binge watch Suits until bedtime. Or whatever other show we have on the docket.
10:30pm Lights Out
We normally find ourselves getting in bed at 10:30pm and turning off the lights anytime between 10:30pm and 11pm, but again, just depends on the day.
Sooooo there you have it! My day in a nutshell. The funny things is, it is really regimented. More than I anticipated. I do love myself a good schedule, but I never really thought about how predictable it was until I wrote it down. I do find spontaneity in the little things in life, I promise! Plus, the benefits of having a toddler just means that this schedule will change momentarily, change is the spice of life! But in all seriousness hopefully this can help spur you to create your own patterns that help you thrive. I do believe schedules give the structure I need to succeed. Cheers!
