little ol’ me.
It’s always a good start when you wake up to happy little people. Reid and I had actually gotten out of bed way before the sun came up, had some coffee, did some laundry and headed back to bed for a morning snooze until Hayden woke up. Her snuggles sometimes aren’t appreciated by everyone.
Hayden had a dance party for us and once our entertainment was over we headed to the kitchen for some breakfast, late breakfast. It was basically lunch.
Most of our days start out with the three main food groups. Coffee, eggs and bacon.
Breakfast is sort of a big deal in our house. We do our very best to sit down and eat together. Lunch gets missed a lot, and especially when Andy is home, we are elsewhere for dinner. So even if it’s cereal, or a quick plate of pancakes, we all sit down and eat as a family. Hayden loves to set the table, and usually will pour our syrup for us. Even before we have any food on our plates.
Hayden is a really good eater, but she has her quirks. She’s not big on her food all being mixed together, so instead of an omelet like I had, she just had the ingredients of the omelet. Plus mangoes, which she would eat all day if I let her. I’ve always been firm that I’m not going to make separate meals for her. She eats what we eat, it just sometimes gets prepared differently.
The smallest one of us played while we ate.
He waited patiently for his breakfast.
We recently started him on cereal since he doesn’t sleep. Like, at all. He still wakes up 2-3 times a night and really despises nap time, but the cereal seems to help some at night and makes him a whole lot happier during the day. I’ll take it.
We didn’t have plans of going anywhere, so Hayden and I opted to stay in sweatpants. But Reid got some clean threads to wear.
We play this game a lot. He thinks it’s just hilarious to put anything on his face and wait for you to pull it off. It is actually pretty fun.
I had dishes to do and Hayden had windows that needed to be covered in masking tape, so the little man got some tummy time in.
Most days are filled with diaper changes, eating, playing, sleep, repeat. This day was no exception. I managed to take a shower too but that didn’t get documented since someone screamed the whole time. I won’t name names.
Reid got put to bed and I started on some projects that had been calling my name for a while.
We hosted the holidays at our house this year and had gone to Costco and loaded up on supplies. A bag of potatoes and a bag of onions had been sitting on my floor for a few weeks now. Potatoes ALWAYS go bad at our house because they get forgotten about and never eaten. Not this time!
I made a gallon bag of hash browns and another bag of chopped potatoes to use for mashed potatoes or soups. The onions all got diced and bagged up and everything got thrown in the freezer.
I constantly change things. Re pot my plants. Move the furniture. Rearrange art work and shelf decor. Swap curtains. We got some big pillows with our couch and I was over their pattern. So I made new ones.
I only managed to cut out the pieces and get one sewn together before the boss woke up and needed tending to. He managed to spit up all over himself and the couch. He got a quick clean up and was given a sock monkey and told to mind his P’s and Q’s while I finished up real quick.
I still have some adjustments to make to the back of them, but they turned out good enough for my standards.
Hayden did some “sewing” of her own, which meant she had taken half of my push pins and stuck them throughout the scraps of fabric leftover. Which littered the living floor just waiting for my bare feet to come strolling through. Neat.
My sewing project wasn’t entertaining enough for the tiny one, and he was ready for another snooze.
Which worked out well since I needed to start dinner and it was the most important part of the day. Cocktail hour.
Don’t worry guys, I only had one… Ok, two… Alright three! But in my defense the last one was pretty watered down. Don’t judge.
When it’s just myself and the little people to worry about for dinner I usually go the easy route. Chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, burritos. Mostly because the little man gets needy at night and doesn’t want to be put down, and well, because I’m tired and lazy by 6 pm.
I met myself in the middle, I’m not really sure that even makes sense, and made an easy throw together dinner. Spicy Peanut Noodles. They are so easy to make and sooo yummy.
I sauteed some peppers and had a pot of fettuccine noodles going.
Mix together peanut butter, rice vinegar, chili sauce, soy sauce, a splash of worchestershire sauce and use a few tablespoons of your pasta water to thin it down. Throw your cooked noodles into your peppers and mix in your peanut sauce. Top with cilantro and green onions. Really easy and delicious and I usually always have the ingredients I need on hand.
Hayden opted to substitute the peanut sauce for apple sauce.
Reid woke up from his evening nap and wasn’t real impressed by what I was up to. And as you can tell from Hayden in the background, she wasn’t either.
Our nights are typically the same. We eat dinner, we play for a bit, watch a few shows, have baths and get ready for bed.
Hayden was to busy elsewhere for a bath, which meant I had a night off from scrubbing bath crayons off the tub.
Once baths are over and pj’s are on, it’s tea time for this mama.
A moment of TMI. I have had such a roller coaster this time around with breast feeding. I had a huge surplus to begin with and was luckily able to stockpile the freezer. Then experienced a down slope, and a freezer mishap, resulting in losing all that stored milk. So now I take a supplement along with drinking this tea and we’re on the rise again folks. I know you were really concerned. Turns out this tea is really delicious though so no complaints.
And there you have it. We had some snuggles and story time and called it a night. Even though it was calm and mellow, and we didn’t go out and have an adventurous event filled day, it was a special day. A day filled with love and laughter, one I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Both your babies are so cute! I love the 1.2.3 drinks situation πΊπ
Anyone who says that moms who work inside the home aren’t busy or just sleep in, seriously need to walk just one day in your shoes. I remember those days fondly though when they were tiny and it was go, go, go. It’s still very much go, go, go, but on a different scale. However, I will say that you do this job way more eloquently than I used to and I admire you.
The meal pictures and talk of the delicious looking food you made, also made me think. Looking back (as I often do these days), I have to say that I used to love making lunch for them. It was my favorite time of day. Maybe because it was after the morning rush and before the afternoon/evening rush and we would sit together and eat, talk and laugh. I enjoyed making their food into cute little designs, shapes or pictures and they enjoyed it too, which is probably why that was the only meal that they never were picky with. It was truly a special time each day with them individually and that is why I relished it. When Lauren was a baby, she’d nap and Matt and I had our lunch together and we had some pretty deep conversations about Barney or where we should go on our afternoon walk. Then when Michael was a baby and Matt was in Pre-K, Lauren and I would share the time and we would have “tea” with our lunch while Michael napped. When the other two were both in school, Michael was and I would have lunch together and then watch some Nick Jr. while cuddling on the couch. Now that they are grown, they still ask me to lunch often and even pay sometimes. Occasionally, one or all of them will drop by my office and want to take me out. So I will have to say, that lunch is still a very special time for me with my children and I guess it is for them too which makes it even better. π