A Day In The Life Of... A Stay at Home Mom! (Charissa!)

For our last Day in the Life of…A Stay at Home Mom post, we take a look at what life is like for me, Charissa, as I go about a typical day with my 2 year old daughter Lilah.

5am

I wake up from a bad dream and realize a) the chances of me falling back to sleep are pretty slim and b)Lilah is going to be up soon.

615am

I hear Lilah waking up and not only does she sound a bit cranky, but I managed to doze off and now I feel worse than I did at 5!

620am

I go and get Lilah, change her diaper (which I’m pretty sure is at its max for absorbing by this point!) and bring her into bed with me. We’ve pretty much cut out our morning nursing but today she’s cranky, and I’m super tired. I decide to just let it slide.

650am

We head downstairs, which takes forever since Lilah is insisting on doing it herself, to get breakfast and most importantly, coffee! I’m really lucky this morning because Lilah has decided she wants to “help” me! Hooray! (That’s sarcasm people) I let her help make the coffee, clean up the coffee grinds on the floor, and reach for my phone to check my email. At the same time I hear Lilah’s first request of the day to watch Blue’s Clues. I try to convince her to watch Curious George instead (I haven’t seen it in a while and would much rather watch that then another Blue’s Clues!) but fail. 

7am

I get her standard breakfast of banana and o’s together and we sit together and watch tv.

730am

I remember that I made coffee and finally pour myself a cup, with Lilah’s “help” of course. Awww, she’s so sweet. She runs off to colour and I’m left to check my email and drink my delicious coffee.

8am

I hear an ever so sweet request for “one more Blue’s Clues?” “How do we ask nicely?” to which she replies with a very high pitched and adorable. “pleeeeeeeeaaasee!” How can I say no to that? 

9am

I head upstairs for a shower. I planned on having a shower alone but apparently Lilah had planned on having a shower with me. I help her gather up a bucket, three balls, a shovel, and a car that she’s decided also need to have a shower and turn the shower on. Time to brush our teeth! 

915am

I realize that I need to do a load of diapers. I turn off the shower (which I’ve yet to step into) and tell Lilah that it will just be a minute, we need to start some laundry. I gather up the diapers, toss them in the wash, and let Lilah “help” by pressing the buttons. I think to myself how nice it’s going to be if she still wants to be this helpful when she’s actually, well, helpful! I check the clock and realize that I’m going to have to reschedule my morning plans for the afternoon.

925am

Turn the shower back in and actually get in this time! While trying to avoid stepping on cars, balls, shovels, and Lilah I manage to get myself and Lilah shampoo’d and washed in ten minutes! That must be a new record! 

935am

I get Lilah dried off and dressed and figure that since she’s happily playing with some toys in my room I might actually have time to do my hair! For the first time in months I manage to straighten my hair and it feels great! Good thing I have plans later this afternoon, I won’t feel so silly for wasting all of that time for nothing!

10am

Someone’s knocking at the door. Should I answer it? I hate answering the door!! Good thing I did though! The UPS man just dropped off a package and I know that it’s going to make Lilah super happy! Lilah is huge into stickers lately and I’m pretty sure this package is full of sticker books I ordered last week!

1015am

I call a friend to invite her over for a quick cup of coffee and she comes by about ten minutes later. Thankfully for me, the UPS man’s sticker delivery has Lilah focused on that and I can try to get through an entire cup of coffee, while it’s still hot!

11am

My friend leaves after a quick cup (she was just picking something up on her way somewhere else) and Lilah asks me to come play stickers with her. Sure! It’s so adorable hearing her name all of the characters in the stickers! Thankfully she’s finally got it right and stopped calling the little monkey from Ni Hao Kai Lan, Hoo hoo. 

1130

I tell Lilah that it’s time to clean up. She helps me put away the puzzles, books, blocks, and cars that have taken over the entire living room. We head upstairs to get ready for a nap and I remember that I’ve got diapers in the wash! Time to set them up for cycle number two!

1150

After nursing her I leave Lilah in her room for a nap. She is NOT happy about it. Usually she’s all too eager for nap time but today she’s just not having it. She’s not crying, just yelling that she needs “fresh water??” “pleeeeeeeeeease!” I go into her room, grab her water and refill it with fresh water. Try to leave again but nope, she NEEDS another snuggle.

12pm

She’s finally down and quiet. Well, for a second that is. Now I can hear her talking to her water, then Buddy her tiny bear, then “oh no!!! I dropped buddy!!” Ugh… I really hope she doesn’t obsess and make me go back in! I head downstairs to check my email (and of course Facebook)(oh and the blog stats, I’m truly obsessed at seeing how many times the blog has been looked at) while I wait for her to actually fall asleep. No sense in getting into something if she’s going to be up in ten minutes!

1230pm

Alright, I haven’t heard her in awhile… must be asleep! I sit down with a snack, some TV, and decide to be somewhat productive and make a tutu while I’m watching a show. 

2pm

Lilah’s awake!

205pm

I go to get Lilah and realize that she’s uber cranky!! Why is it that she seems to wake up in a worse mood than when she was tired before nap??? 

220pm

Lilah is still cranky and nothing is making her happy so I decide to just sit down and nurse her for a bit. I check the clock and realize that with her in a mood and it already being close to 230 there is no way I’m going to be able to keep my afternoon plans. I call my friend to reschedule…again.

245pm

Time for lunch! We settle on carrots, cauliflower, and cheese. Ahh how I love the easy lunches that toddlers request! 

250pm

“No carrots! Watermelon?? Pleeeeeeeeeeease??” Sigh… well at least it’s only watermelon and not a request for a full course meal, right?

3pm

Lilah is back playing with stickers so I attempt to clean up the kitchen…again. I seriously just did it this morning? Didn’t I? Oh wait… I meant to, but the UPS man knocked and interrupted that train of thought. Note: Pregnancy/baby brain NEVER goes away!!

4pm

My husband Jeff texts that he wants to try and Skype with us. He’s been away all week and I know Lilah will be super excited about it! We get everything set up and… the connection sucks. Jeff looks like a choppy blob but with a washed out horror movie face. It’s kind of scary. Not only does the picture suck but the sound isn’t so great either. He can see and hear us great so we leave Skype on and call him so we can hear him on speaker phone. It’s a bit of an odd setup but Lilah seems excited to talk to her dad!

430pm

Done with Skype and now it’s time to make dinner! I’m feeling adventurous and decide to try and convince Lilah that tuna melts are delicious.

5pm

Success! She’s eaten half of a tuna melt and hasn’t even made a face! I’m going to have to try this more often!

530pm

Clean up from dinner, load the dishwasher (thank you Josephine Cochrane for inventing it!), and sit down to play with Lilah for a bit. 

545pm

Head upstairs to read Cat In The Hat before getting things ready for bed time.

550pm

Read Cat In The Hat… Again.

555pm

Argh! I forgot about the diapers! I turn the washer back on for their final cycle (Yup, you counted that right. Three full cycles thanks to the wonderful invention of the HE Front Loading washing machine. Sigh.)

6pm

Shower time! I get Lilah to gather the toys that she wants in the shower and toss her in. While she’s playing in the shower (No need to scrub her down since she took over my shower time this morning), I clean the bathroom. May as well make use of the time right, lord knows I don’t want to use my “me” time to scrub toilets!

625pm

Get Lilah out of the shower and grab the phone so we can do a speaker phone bed time with dad. Lilah sits on the counter while we floss and brush our teeth and put on some yummy smelling California Baby lotion. After that we run, with Dad in hand, (in phone form) and sit him in his bedtime spot. Then Lilah announces that she needs to pee so we run back to the bathroom, set up the potty, Dad and I step out and close the door. How she even knows what privacy is, and why she gets it when I don’t is beyond me! She tells me she’s all done and I open the door to a grinning Lilah. I hand her the toilet paper and sing her potty song. Thankfully I’m not alone as Jeff is chiming in over speaker phone; Shine, Shine, Shine, what a beautiful day Lilah peed in the potttttttty!!! We run back to her room and get diaper and jammies on. Then it’s time for her to say goodnight to Dad which is super cute since he’s been doing bedtime over the phone with us. She kisses the phone first with a regular kiss, then an Eskimo kiss, then a chin kiss (she came up with that one), and last a butterfly kiss. She insists (very, very loudly) that she gets to press the off button and we toss the phone outside the door. “Night Night Mr. Light! Time for Lilah to go to sleep!” We sit down on the couch in her room for some pre bed snuggles. Wait! Now she needs Buddy, oh and a blanket! 

640pm

Hooray! Sleeping baby!! I love bedtime now. It’s so much nicer than a year ago when it would take a couple of hours and multiple trips back up stairs to nurse a cranky baby. 

715pm

I sit down at the laptop to post some stuff on the blog and to catch up on emails.

8pm

Lilah’s awake. And sounds miffed. I head to her room to find that she’s been sleeping on her sippy cup, which should be called a leaky cup, and she’s now soaked. And so are her sheets. I change her pj’s and her sheets. Check her diaper, of course it’s completely dry. Oh well, it’s already off, I’ll just use a clean one. By this point she’s in utter hysterics. I have no clue why she keeps yelling at me when it’s so obvious that I’m fixing the problem! Now I’m begging her to stop crying; did I just whine?? I nurse her and put her back in her crib. “Where’d it go?” “Where’d what go Lilah, it’s time for bed.” “Fresh water? Pleeeeeeeeeease?” Sigh… I run all the way downstairs, throw out the leaky cup which I’m now very angry with and actually holding a grudge against. That’ll show you cup! I grab a new cup, fill it up, run back up stairs and hand it to Lilah who I’m pretty sure has been holding her arms outstretched waiting for me the entire time. “Goodnight Lilah, I love you.” “………..” One day she’ll say it back!! Right??

10pm

Bed! Since my husband is gone and I’m apparently scared of the dark now it takes me forever to fall asleep! I check the clock, it’s 1130. Sigh.

4am

What the hell?!! Is the bed actually shaking?? Another earthquake? Really. I cross my fingers and pray that it doesn’t wake Lilah up. Thankfully it doesn’t. 

Despite the crap sleep I think tomorrow might actually be a decent day. My goals for tomorrow? Actually vacuuming, having a HOT cup of coffee (maybe two, look out!!), and actually remembering to finish the diapers. Are they still in the wash? Crap. I really should have hung those up.

Thank you to everyone for reading out Day In The Life Posts! It's been really great getting to see what life is like for 6 different SAHM's! For our October Day In The Life of.... Series we'd love to see what life is life for Working Moms! If you would like to be a part of it, just send us and email and we'll send you some directions! alaskaskids@gmail.com

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