A Day in the Life. . . of an almost 2 year old

I know I said I probably wasn’t going to do any more of these posts, but I was looking back on one about a year ago, and I love having the diary to reread and see how far we’ve come, so I still might do these occasionally.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Cullen will be two next month, so we’ve gotten to the point where we say his age is: ‘almost two.’ He loves being outside, throwing rocks into puddles/ponds of water, going on walks with Sadie, reading books, and playing with other kids.

Today (Friday) was a pretty typical day for us: errands, a walk with the dog, time at home, cleaning/laundry, and working out.

Thursday, September 29

9:00 p.m. I put Cullen down for the night. Of course he doesn’t go down right away. He fusses for a while, so I have Craig go put him down.

9:30 p.m. He’s down for the night.

10:00 p.m. Lights out for me.

Friday, September 30

5:38 a.m. I hear Cullen fuss. He’s been waking up once every night for the past couple of weeks. I don’t know if there is a reason or not. (I did notice his 2 year molars are coming in on the bottom, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by them during the day.) This time he only fusses for a few seconds and then puts himself back to sleep, but almost every other night I have had to go check on him. Sometimes I will just cover him back up and give him his pacifier, sometimes I rub his back, and other times I rock him back to sleep. Luckily it hasn’t taken too long before he falls back to sleep–veruses the nights we’d be up 3 hours with him before he’d go back to sleep! While it isn’t fun getting up in the middle of the night, it is no where near as awful as it was just 6 months ago.

5:40 a.m. By this time I figure it isn’t worth it to go back to sleep, so I get up since my alarm was set for 6:00 anyhow. I get ready to go and workout at the gym.

6:10 a.m. Arrive at the gym and start my 75 minutes of stationary bike riding. I don’t love the bike, but the TV and my phone are good distractions. This is the only time I watch TV–specifically HGTV.

7:30 a.m. I am done with the workout, and I have a little bit of time before I have to be back home, so I spend a few minutes stretching because I know it won’t happen at home.

7:50 a.m. Arrive back home. Cullen and Craig are just waking up. (Craig gets up about 30 minutes before he has to leave for work. Ha!) I take the opportunity to take a shower since I know it takes Cullen a few minutes to wake up anyhow. After the shower I get ready for the day while Cullen looks at everything in my make-up drawer.

8:30 a.m. We go downstairs for breakfast. I make a yogurt bowl with Silk soymilk yogurt, oats, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and mango. I also toast half of an English muffin and spread a mashed avocado on it. Cullen has some yogurt, string cheese, and mango. While Cullen is washing his hands, I notice the baseboards are dirty, so I decide to wipe them down. (I neat freak in me can get out of control sometimes.) Cullen helps me put clean dishes away, and then I finish cleaning up the kitchen.

9:35 a.m. Back up stairs to pick up the bedrooms, finish getting ready, make the bed, fold a load of laundry, etc. I am constantly picking up the house throughout the day, but I like staying on top of the cleaning the day rather than waiting until the end of the day.

10:30 a.m. Now that the house is picked up, we are finally ready to venture outside the house. We drive to the mall, and I stop at Banana Republic, Lululemon, and Bath and Body Works. I find a shirt for $18 at Banana Republic, but what I really wanted were some new running tights at Lululemon. I don’t find anything I love, and I have to love something there since I would be spending a minimum of $100. We find some soap, a candle, and a bottle of lotion at Bath and Body Works. While we are shopping there, we run into a friend, so we chat with her for a while.

12:20 p.m. Of course our time at the mall took longer than I had anticipated.  Normally we would head home for nap time, but I had been telling Cullen I was going to take him to the park after shopping, so I know I have to keep my word now. We make a stop at Westchester Lagoon to play at the playground, throw rocks in the pond, and watch the ducks. Cullen is not happy we have to go after a short period of time, but then again he wouldn’t be happy leaving if we had spent two hours there.

This is the best picture I could get of the two of us.

1:00 p.m. We arrive home, and I change Cullen’s diaper and then lay him in his crib. I can tell he is tired, so I hope he will fall asleep right away.

1:30 p.m. Of course he doesn’t, so I go read some books to him, rock him, and sing to him.

1:45 p.m. He fights it for a while longer but finally he is down.  I thought he might skip his nap today, which can happen once or twice a week. Last week he napped every other day–no bueno. He still needs a nap.

I snack on some chips and salsa and do computer work. I almost always do as much computer work as I can during his nap so that I’m not on the computer while he’s awake. I answer e-mails, work on this blog post, update my time sheet for work, do some online shopping, etc.

2:20 p.m. Time for some real food: a piece of toast with fresh tomatoes from the garden (they do not compare to the ones from the grocery store!), avocado slices, avocado oil, salt, and pepper. I also have some carrot sticks, cucumber slices, and some Honeycrisp apple. Every fall I get so excited to see the Honeycrisp apples in the store. They look so good: shiny red apples that look like they were just picked, but every time I buy that overpriced Honeycrisp apple, and every time I am disappointed with how it tastes.

3:45 p.m. I’m still hungry, so I snack on a Luna bar.

4:10 p.m. As much as I hate waking a sleeping baby, I know I should go and wake Cullen up, otherwise he’ll go down even later tonight. I rock him for a while and he falls back asleep for a few minutes. We slowly wake up and then go and get a snack. Cullen eats while I clean up the kitchen and pack my lunch for tomorrow.

4:50 p.m. I start working on Cullen’s birthday invites. Cullen plays with blocks, and I take breaks to play with him.

5:30 p.m. Craig gets home from work.

5:40 p.m. We swap baby-duty, and I leave for my nail appointment. I’ve had shellac nail polish for 6 weeks now, so it is time to get it taken off. I opt for regular nail polish to give my nails (and wallet) a break from shellac.

6:30 p.m. I’m done with my appointment and drive to my mother-in-law’s to pick up Cullen. (Craig took him over there.) We chat for a while before Cullen and I head off to the park.

7:30 p.m. Play at the park and let Sadie run around for a while.

8:10 p.m. Time to head back home as it is getting dark out now.

8:30 p.m. Eat (a very late) dinner. (We never eat this late.) I don’t have time to cook anything, so I have a bowl of cereal and some roasted broccoli.

9:00 p.m. We head upstairs for bedtime. I have Cullen sit on the potty (no success), change into his pajamas, brush teeth, read books, and rock.

9:30 p.m. I finish cleaning the kitchen, fold a load of laundry, clean the toilets, and finish this blog post.

10:30 p.m. Cullen still isn’t sleeping. (I told you I have the Worst Sleeper Ever.) I go and check on him, and he says he is hungry. Sigh. . . .

10:35 p.m. We go downstairs to eat some cereal.

11:00 p.m. I’m ending this blog post now because I’m tired and have to be to work in 8.5 hours, and who knows when the little rascal will go to bed.

The end.