What I Ate Wednesday: Day in the Life, 23 Months + 6 Weeks

YOU GUYS. I finally did it. I documented an ENTIRE day for a Day in the Life. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’ll plan on doing one, and either the day I choose to document turns into an out of the ordinary day or I forget halfway through, but I DID it. And it’s long, I’m not gonna lie. But days with 2 under 2 can definitely be long. Anyway, doing this was fun. And it made me realize that a. I do the dishes a lot. and b. even the days when it feels like little was accomplished, I do a lot. While my day may not have been fun or exciting or, you know, filled with human contact other than my family, I feel it’s a pretty good insight into what my days look like as a SAHM. So let’s get into it since it’s a long one.

Check out past WIAWs on the new What I Ate Wednesday page!

6:01 – the littlest Wieboldt begins to stir so I change and feed him and attempt to get him to go back to sleep. Nope. I bring him to bed with me and we cuddle for a bit (okay, so I’m definitely hoping he’ll fall asleep – he doesn’t).

6:35 – I hear Ryan starting to whine, so up we go. Owen goes into his bouncer and I get the house ready for Ryan – dog food up, chairs put down, snack out. Of course, Owen falls right asleep in the bouncer. I get Ryan and give him his (measly) snack of a few raisins which I’m pretty sure he shares with Cooper while I get his breakfast ready and clean up the kitchen a bit.

7:00 – I give Ryan an egg with cheese and some ketchup, a pancake with PB&J and some chopped apple. While he eats I make myself some coffee and throw the leftovers from yesterday’s french fries in the oven before starting this post.

7:15 – Ryan tells me he’s “all done” so I give his leftovers to Cooper and clean him off before setting him free to go play. I drink my coffee, eat the fries (not great, but not bad considering) and do bloggy stuff while I try to wake up. I get nothing done, inevitably, because Owen’s squirming, Cooper wants to go in and out and in and out and Ryan is basically wreaking havoc.

7:40 – Big boy needs a diaper change so I do that and decide to do the dishes. I inevitably find/make more right as I’m done and decide I’ll do those the next round. Make Alex’s rice for his lunch. (I make it in the AM and the dry it out since he makes himself fried rice.)

8:00 – Ryan insists on cuddling with me, and who am I to deny him? Eventually,we migrate to the living room and cuddle and watch cartoons.

8:20 – Cuddle time is over, little brother is up. I change Owen and put him in new, non-spit up clothes. This sleeper is giant on him, but he’s in a weird spot of getting too big for newborn clothes and still too small for 0-3. Sigh. After I feed him (plus a spit up) I sit with him like this. I’ve been doing this after feeds to try and avoid giant spit ups. 50/50 success rate, I’d say.

9:00 – start working on my to-do for the week and creating my “essentials” list for the day – a few things off of it that need to get done today. It helps make my 3 page long to-do list easier (I’m half exaggerating)

9:20 – I start tidying the kitchen and living room because it’s already covered in a deep layer of toys, and scream when I find a freaking dead mouse that Molly must have gotten to last night. (it was hidden, so no one was playing with it or anything) Wake up Alex because I don’t do mice. We live in an area where mice are inevitable, so she does occasionally get one for us. She earns her keep.

9:30 – Start getting Owen ready for a nap.

9:45 – Still not asleep. But he does need another diaper change..

10:00 – Owen’s finally napping, so I go play with Ryan, who has been begging me to play for 3o minutes while I got Owen to sleep. (begging me is him climbing into his toy box and yelling until I rescue him..)

10:25 – Alex gets up to make a smoothie for him and Ryan. We all hang out on the couch after while the boys drink smoothies.

10:35 – Relaxing over, Owen decided that he wanted to have a short nap. A feeding and a change are in order, and then I change Ryan’s diaper and clothes.

11:00 – Alex leaves with Ryan to get some groceries while I stay home with cranky pants. I quickly do some toy clean up before swaddling (fingers crossed!!) and bouncing Owen. I end up nursing him again and then sitting him up in my lap while I work on some posts until he seems to have digested enough to nap.

11:30 – We have nappage! I gather laundry to start a load and change my own spit up shirt and bra to add to the pile. I also add an ice cube to this morning’s coffee because let’s be real, moms don’t finish anything in a reasonable amount of time.  I aim to follow my 15-minute rule each time I’m child-free (if Alex takes Ryan or they’re both asleep) and I get a decent amount done – laundry in, shoes away, clutter gathered, Ryan’s lunch started – but I only get 12 minutes before Owen starts fussing. It’s clearly one of those days.

11:55 – Boys are back, groceries away, lunch is started. Ryan gets a deconstructed version of my salad – beans, leftover rotisserie chicken, cheddar cheese, tomato and some broccoli on the side – as well as tomato and rice.

12:30 – Lunch is over, so I clean up and start helping Alex with his lunch.

1:00- Alex eats, Ryan and I play and dilly daddle. I try to give him some extra love right before naps when Owen is sleeping because I think it helps him go down easier.

1:40 – I wake up Owen from his nap (we try to keep to 2 hours max to help with night sleeping) change his diaper and feed him.

2:00 – Alex leaves for work and I rock Ryan a bit before putting him down for his nap. He whines for maybe 2 minutes before falling right to sleep, score!

2:10 – Inevitably, this one is cranky. I make myself a new coffee (decaf this time) and swaddle him up before my 15 minutes of cleaning/tidying and then spending Ryans nap doing my blog hustle.  I think about watching something on Netflix but I know I’ll get 100% more done without it and I like to start Monday’s off super productive.

3:30 – Ryan’s up from his nap, and I give him a snack cup of rice and raisins (his favorite). Since we’re in snack-gate, I know that a nasty tantrum is going to start once it’s empty and I’m right. We sit together for about a half hour while he wines and cries about the injustices of the world. Whatevs.

4:00 – Start dinner/taking pictures of the steps for a blog post coming up – you guys do not want to miss this one, trust me.

4:15 – The crankiness of my toddler is unbearable. He’s super clingy and when he’s not on me, he’s running around whining and yelling and hitting the dog in the face while yelling, NO! Send help. Spend the next half hour appeasing him.

4:45 – Decide to start cooking dinner but then, oops, remember that I have another child who is napping peacefully but well past his nap time. Wake up the little guy, change and feed him. Realize that Ryan stole a tomato off the counter, and think about taking it away because you know, no snacks. But I mean, he’s being so good. And it’s a tomato.

5:00 – Get dinner going. 10 minutes in realize the grill you were cooking dinner on ran out of propane at least 5 minutes ago. Bring everything inside in a flurry to cook on the stove. Do the dishes again.

5:30 – Sit Ryan in his high chair to feed him – apples, tomatoes, cheese, chicken with roasted garlic spread. Realize I should probably make him some kind of steamed veg but then decide it’s getting late and this is good enough. I get Owen bath ready.

For all of you who so kindly tell me that I have it all together and get so much done – this is the unpolished version of what my days look like. Bathing Owen on the kitchen counter with my stylized dinner next to it that I just took blog pictures of, Ryan eating in his high chair angry because he can’t watch Owen. Three minutes before this Cooper are the other half of my dinner out of the hot pan while I changed Owen’s diaper. (Also, before anyone calls protective services or something on me, Owen was 100% safe. You can’t see from the photo but I am very, very close, God forbid anything happen.)

5:45 – Towel dry Owen and throw on a diaper, clean up Ryan and set him free. I bring Owen into our room to take some 6-week pictures and a little while later Ryan joins. Moments like these are what makes the prior 2 hours worth it. Also, any of you photo editing wiz’s know how to get the orange out of that picture?

6:15- Sit down with my cold dinner (chicken BLT with a roasted garlic parmesan spread, pictured above – keep your eyes out for it because it’s life changing.) and start typing this post. I thought about using a plate but dishes. No thanks. I ate on a paper towel.

6:40 – Start getting Owen ready for bed – nursing, changing, swaddling. Clean up toys, tidy up the kitchen, play with Ryan and try to get Owen to fall asleep.

7:00 – Start the tub for Ryan, then tubby time for the big boy.  Sometimes I wipe down the bathroom while he bathes but I am way too lazy today. It feels like today has been a long one. Instead we listen to music and I read to Ryan.

7:30 – Out of the tub and into the jammies. I rock with Ryan for a bit and then put him down, followed by my 15 minutes of cleaning. More toy clean up. More dishes. I throw a sweet potato into the steam basket to cook while I do some work.

8:20 – Eat my ‘dessert’ of a sweet potato with butter and black pepper. So good. Then I force myself to brush my teeth since I’m feeling stupid snacky today and that usually helps with not snacking. Keep on blogging and cleaning on and off.

10:15 – Ryan’s crying, which is unusual. I go in there, rock him back to sleep and then keep rocking him for longer than needed because I can. He’s teething pretty bad, so he’s been miserable at night.

10:40 – Back to workin’ it. Pause to finish the dishes for the night and put away any stragglers.

11:30 – Alex texts me that he’s going to be working late right as I’m jumping to the shower. Pray that Owen and Ryan sleep through my shower, which they do, but just as I’m getting out Owen wakes up. Rush to get to him before he wakes up Ryan.

12:00 – Fail. Both boys are up, so I go from room to room rocking, nursing, replacing O’s pacifier..
1:00 – Both boys are asleep. I get ready for bed while Owen continues to occasionally squeak, and then lay in bed on my phone until he officially settles. Go to sleep.

2:00 – Cooper wakes me up scratching at the bathroom door LOUD, which he only does when he’s afraid of thunder or gunshots. I hear neither in my drowsy, confused state so I’m mostly annoyed, but 10 minutes later a huge storm rolls in. Alex gets home around 2:40 and we sit around the kitchen trying to keep Cooper contained (he’ll scratch on Ryan’s door if we don’t.)

3:15 – Cooper calms down more or less and I pass out. Good night, world.

The night was obviously not a typical one, but it is what it is.

The day by the numbers:

Times I did the dishes: 5 (aka, way too many)
Diapers: 13
Outfit changes: 6
Times I picked up the same. damn. toys: 4
Times I “rescued” Ryan from his toybox: 6

OKAY!!! So tell me – have you ever done a day in the life post? Was this one stupid long? Do you love roasted garlic as much as I do? Let me know in the comments!!