Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you are able to spend some time with the ones you love today and celebrate the birth of our Savior.
Cullen is 14 months old today! He is becoming more of a person each day with a personality like his dad: explorative, adventuresome, and definitely a momma’s-boy these days!
I enjoy doing these ‘day in the life’ posts, so I hope you enjoy them as well. This is our day yesterday (Wednesday), so I could give you guys a better account of the day without the holiday celebrations. Plus I’m watching a friend’s baby today, so things are going to be different anyhow.
Tuesday, December 22
9:15 p.m. Cullen finally goes down for the night. This past week we have really struggled with getting him down at his normal bedtime of 7:30/8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 23
3:07 a.m. I hear Cullen fussing in his room. I wait a while (5-7 minutes) to see if he’ll quiet down, but he doesn’t. I rub his head and stroke his temple to calm him down. (Lately stroking his temple has been the one thing that sometimes will actually work for me. It is funny and difficult because the thing that gets him to sleep is never the same thing from nap time to bedtime and from one day to the next. Sometimes dad rocks him to sleep, sometimes I rub his back, other times I stroke his temple. And then other times I just sit in the rocking chair until he falls asleep.)
3:30 a.m. Cullen finally falls back asleep, but now I am awake and having a hard time falling back asleep. It usually takes me 20-30 minutes to fall back asleep.
5:30 a.m. I wake up and look at the clock, 30 minutes until my alarm is set to go off. I debate about getting an early start on my run but end up fall back asleep.
6:00 a.m. My alarm goes off. I get dressed, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and get ready for my run.
6:20 a.m. Start my 9 mile easy run. The run goes okay. It is cold out–probably in the low double-digits. (I don’t even check before I go out because I know it is cold, period.) I can still tell I’m winded more than usual because of having low iron.
7:35 a.m. Return from my run. As soon as I get home, I hear Cullen starting to stir.
7:45 a.m. I get Cullen from his crib. We say good morning to Craig and hang out for a bit.
8:00 a.m. I jump in the shower while Craig is still home, so he can keep an eye on Cullen while I’m showering.
8:10 a.m. We head downstairs for breakfast. I made a smoothie to share with Cullen (He loves smoothies.), and I have a morning glory muffin as well. After breakfast I clean up the kitchen and put everything away.
8:55 a.m. We go back upstairs, so I can finish getting ready. Cullen plays while I get ready. He current favorite toys include: my toothbrush, the nail file, my make-up brush, and shoes. I also get Cullen ready and pick up our bedrooms.
9:50 a.m. Cullen and I venture out for some errands. Our first stop is a Dino’s Donuts to pick up a treat for Craig. Craig gets a maple bacon donut; I pick out one with sprinkles for myself.
10:15 a.m. We stop by Craig’s work and drop off his donut. We chat with him and a few of his coworkers before letting them get back to work.
10:45 a.m. We head to the 5th Avenue Mall to pick up a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law.
11:30 a.m. I can see Cullen is getting tired. I wanted to make one more stop, but I am trying to be diligent about putting him down for his nap by noon. Otherwise if he goes down too late, he naps too late, and if he naps later than 3:30/4:00 p.m., we have a really hard time getting him to go to bed by 7:30/8:00 p.m. again, so I opt to go home.
11:55 p.m. We arrive home and we start the nap time routine which is the same as the bedtime routine (minus the bath and pajamas): read books with blanket and Cullen gets his pacifier. (Naps and bedtime are the only time he’s allow to have a pacifier.) By 12:15 he’s asleep, which is a huge improvement from where we used to be and the days I would spend an hour or two trying to get him down for his nap.
During Cullen’s nap, I do a boatload of different things: work on two of Craig’s Christmas gifts (two handmade ones), eat lunch, buy a shirt from J. Crew, buy these Sorel boots, catch up on e-mails, work on this blog post, and figure out what I’m making for Christmas day.
3:30 p.m. I am talking to my sister, when I hear Cullen wake-up. I can usually count on Cullen napping for 1.5 hours, and oftentimes it is 2 hours. Usually once a week it goes for 3 hours, and I guess today was the day.
3:45 p.m. I go and get Cullen and feed him a really late lunch. I work on cleaning up my projects and getting things put away.
4:30 p.m. We head to Skinny Raven, which was the other errand I wanted to do this morning. I pick up a Nike order than came in for me and chat with my coworkers a bit.
5:30 p.m. Return home.
5:45 p.m. I quickly get changed and head to coach the Skinny Raven Training group at The Dome. We are currently doing a beginner training group for those new to running.
7:15 p.m. I return home from training group. Craig is attempting to put Cullen down for bed, so I grab a bite to eat.
7:45 p.m. No such luck, Cullen isn’t going down yet. I play with him and chat with Craig about our day.
8:05 p.m. I start washing dishes and picking up the house.
8:20 p.m. Cullen is starting to act a little more fussy, so I try to get him to go down. I read some books, check to make sure he has a clean diaper, and then lay him in his crib. I rub his back and sit in the chair for a while, but it isn’t working.
8:50 p.m. I finish up picking up the house while Craig plays with Cullen.
9:15 p.m. I get ready for bed while Craig ties to get Cullen to go down.
9:30 p.m. Success! The baby is down! I finish up this blog post.
10:10 p.m. Lights out for me.
The end!
