A Day in the Life

Here goes another round of 'A Day in the Life of the Chase's'.....
(I actually started writing this post about a week ago, and it's taken me until now to get it finished - my days are BUSY these days).

7:45am - Hunter wakes up and nurses.  I also change his diaper and get him dressed for the day.  (into outfit #1 for the day anyways... he'll spit up and need a new one at some point :) )

8am - I haven't heard Sydney stirring yet, so I take a few minutes and to get ready. Hunter is content to play on his little playmat and make coo-ing noises along with the music.

8:20 - Sydney's up.  I change a diaper and get her dressed.

We head downstairs for breakfast.  While I make breakfast, I let Hunter and Sydney "play" together in the living room.  As is usually the case, today this consists of Hunter laying on a quilt and staring at the fan and Sydney bringing him toys to "play with".  He usually ends up with some of her stuffed animals laying next to him and a few rattles laying on his belly. 

We eat and get loaded into the car by 9:15 to drop Sydney at preschool. 

9:30 - I drop Sydney at preschool and consider myself lucky since I got a 'bye mom' as she hopped out of the car.

Hunter has fallen asleep during the run to preschool, so I take a few minutes to run to Target to return something.  Which leads to wandering around Target for an hour or so. :)

I head home so that I can wake Hunter up and feed him at 11.  He's awake after he eats so he and hang out for a while.  By noon he's starting to drift off again, so I let him take a nap (today he's in his bouncey seat, so I just leave him be).   I grab some lunch and take a minute to read some blogs/check facebook/whatnot.

At 12:45, we get back in the car to head to preschool to pick Sydney up.  We get home around 1:15 and Hunter's still sleeping, so I bring his carseat into the kitchen and let him continue his nap there.  Sydney and I play for a little bit and I ask her about her day.  I'm starting to get a bit more details in her answers these days, but there for a little while the only thing she'd say was that she 'played'. 

2pm - Naptime for Sydney.  And Hunter is waking up to eat.   So I feed him/change a diaper.  He relaxes in my arms for a while and when he starts to nod off, I take him to the bassinet for a nap. This is definitely his fussy time of the day and he spends the next 'naptime' alternating between screaming and taking quick catnaps.  I, meanwhile, spend my time checking the video monitor and muttering to myself questions like 'why won't he keep the flipping pacifier IN his mouth?' and 'sweet boy, why did you spit the paci out AGAIN? you know it makes you angry when you do that.' and 'is it time for Dan to come home yet?'

Between trips upstairs to replace a paci in Hunter's mouth and one to Sydney's room to remind her that she can talk to her baby doll AFTER naptime, my productivity is limited to putting a load of laundry into the wash.

5pm - Both kids are up.  I let Sydney watch a show (Curious George) while I feed Hunter.  Dan calls to say that he's on his way home (woohoo!). 

I reheat some homemade soup from the freezer for dinner and play with the kiddos for a bit.

6pm - Dan is home.  Hunter has fallen asleep in his bouncey seat and I remind Sydney yet again that she can't play with her brother while he's sleeping.

6:30 - dinnertime.  Sydney says the blessing for us before dinner.  It is incredibly cute and like most nights, it leaves Dan and I biting our tongues so that we don't laugh out loud.  She folds her little hands and closes her eyes tight.  Last night the blessing went something like this: "Us bodies.  Mommy, Daddy.  Baby Hunter be happy.  MAE-MAE, Grampie.  Grandma, GranGran (granddaddy).  Thank you Father us food, many blessings. Amen."  (the 'us bodies' is a nod to the part when Dan and I usually say 'bless this food to our bodies' when he or I says the blessing.  The list of family members comes from her nighttime prayers.  As for the "baby Hunter be happy" part - I dont' really know where that came from, but I'm not going to stop her from praying for that!

7:00 - Sydney has some 'independent playtime' in her playroom while Dan and I clean up the kitchen and have a chance to talk about our days.  Sydney is really NOT feeling the 'independent' part of 'independent playtime', so we have to pop our head into her playroom every now and then to encourage her to be happy. 

When Dan goes into her playroom she tells him that she doesn't like her playroom because it's messy.  So - Dan reminds her that she can clean it up, gives her a bit of direction and tells her he'll be back to check in a few minutes.

Dan and I hang out with Hunter in the living room.  (with periodic trips to the playroom to check on Sydney's cleaning up progress).

7:30 - Sydney joins us in the living room and we all hang out for a bit.  Dan turns on some music and Sydney has "dance parties."  Her music request for tonight:  Dropkick Murphies (the blue cd). 

8 - bedtime for Sydney and bottle-time with Daddy for Hunter.

After his bottle, Hunter gets changed and swaddled and put into his basinette.  He falls asleep with just a few minutes of fussing (but no real crying tonight... woohoo!).

Dan and I crash on the couch with the intentions of watching a show that we've taped.  (Sometimes, this results in us watching about half a show and then one of us waking the other of us up and saying 'let's go to bed.' :) ).

Tonight, so we hang out downstairs watching tv and catching up with each other until it's time to feed Hunter again.

11pm - Hunter eats again and falls right back asleep.  He'll will wake up once to eat (maybe twice, but probably just once) before 8am, so Dan and I crash pretty soon after he does so that we have a chance at getting some sleep.