a day in the LIFE! [friday, september 8, 2017]

oooh man. i know, i KNOW! it’s the moment everyone has been waiting for… a day in the glamorous life of MOI!! grab your morning wine [haha just kidding], and prepare to be dazzled. 😉

okay, but really… every time someone posts one of these, they are completely my favorites to read!! i love love knowing people’s little habits and rituals and routines… how each person works so differently from the next! and honestly, the more uneventful a person’s day, the more i enjoy reading all the little details. i just love daily quirks! those are what make up LIFE, right!

oh, but i have truly never wanted to do one of these, myself… i think for me it has felt kind of silly to take note of one whole entire average-feeling little day out of the many, many, many solidly average days that make up the life of the millennial homemaker, if you will. haha. most days aren’t “special” at all… outside of the fact that each day is a gift, of course! and heck, i’m just happy if everyone is alive and ideally being kind to one another. 🙂

so anyway! suddenly, i don’t know, i just thought i’d try out a fully-narrated day! mostly because i know one day i’ll look back and be like, “look how little they were!! those were the days!” so! this was last friday, which was one of our more structured days, since maddalena had school…

aaaand… action!

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[sometime in the wee hours] maddalena gets in our bed and not long after says she has a bad dream about a crab in the bathroom at school and she doesn’t want to go tomorrow! i tell her we will make sure there are no crabs at school, but if there are we will leave. she snuggles up and goes back to sleep. rocco is already cuddled and snoozing cutely in the big bed as of like, 11:30pm last night. 🙂

[6:30 am] my first alarm goes off! i usually wait for my second alarm which is 10 minutes later, but madd hears it and hops up… she goes down to her room to get back in her bed for the experience of waiting for her little alarm clock sheep, baabaa, to wake up. rocco wakes up and, “gocco down!!! gocco down!!!” i reeaallyy don’t want to get up, but then I LEAP out of bed after noticing that I’m laying in… something. i flip on the light to find that it’s… cat food??? what on earth. i still have no idea why! my life is so weird sometimes.

[7:00] maddalena comes back upstairs dressed adorably! she dressed her own sweet self and did a great job. i get everyone breakfast, drink my coffee, and attempt to get myself ready.

[7:30] we’re doing the last minute scramble of all the 500 tiny things we haven’t done yet to get in the car and take off!

[7:45] hurry hurry HURRY!!!!!! we load up and go! we listen to diana krall. i drink more coffee. i love coffee for the road! traffic is light. yaaay!

[8:00] roll up to school. i barely miss my morning bff greeting from maggie as we arrive and she pulls away, but fortunately she texts me that we are still on for our regularly scheduled friday happy hour. rocco and i walk sissy to her class and give her hugs and kisses!! as we leave, rocco starts his usual chants of “no go!!! no go!!!” but then he’s distracted by his other fav, “coo buh!” when he spots the little school buses they have parked over by the track. in the car, i notice so many trees already showing fall colors! and behind me, a little voice is now shouting, “mommy, GO!” because i am not driving fast enough for his liking.

[8:30] pull into the grocery parking lot with my baby boo. this is the earliest i have ever grocery shopped in my life, but neither of us wants to go straight back home after dropping sissy so it’s fine! it must be done!

[9:00] load groceries in the car, load toddler in the car, pull around to get gasoline. rocco is suddenly begging for a “pop.” [he’s obsessed with lollipops – i have organic ones at home, but he always snags the regular dum-dum kind when we’re out and about, so i give up!] i reminisce about the time a gas pump sprayed my uggs with gasoline and ponder the reports of credit card scamming that have been going on at gas pumps. i wish myself luck.

[9:08] home! get the boy out, get all the grocery bags on my two arms… that’s the goal. carry in groceries, up up up three flights of stairs from garage to kitchen. luckily, this time i didn’t get that many! rocco often likes to take this opportunity to refuse to walk on his own, and insist that i carry him, too… but i successfully bribe him with the prospect of cheddar kangaroos [the store brand alternative to cheddar bunnies, haha!]. so, kitchen… more coffee! put groceries away. i sit baby boy down with his nibbles of choice and grab my laptop to do some stuff while he eats. i show him the video compilation of our spring beach trip that i finally put together over the last week, which makes me all sorts of emosh!!

[9:30] i let minnie out to potty, get rocco more cheddar kangaroos… and start to work on a blog post for my video. i get caught up in screenshotting some favorite recorded moments from the trip and wishing we were there and worrying about the hurricane and having all the feelings!

[10:00] hmmm… my computer is frozen! i don’t know how to unfreeze macbooks?! and it stays frozen for like, 15 minutes… i change a diaper, clean up the kitchen a little, hit the coffee button another time after refilling the water and emptying the grounds… then i turn on a pbs show for rocco because he’s getting super fussy, but he’s been really hard to actually get down for a nap lately. i finally do a hard reboot on my little puter, because still, nothing is happening. rocco chills out to sesame street, and i finish my coffee… eventually, my computer pulls itself back together, and i attempt to finally finish uploading photos to my blog post…

[11:00] i hit publish on my bloggy fully knowing that 11 on a friday is not the best time to post [why is the internet so complicated?!], but official documentation could wait not a moment more! so, now rocco wants a banana. now he wants toast! i have a liiiittle more coffee. a friend messaged me about some chairs i wanted for a better price, so i message her that she’s awesome. i karate chop the sofa cushions, clean the pots that were in the kitchen sink, clean up rocco’s food…

[11:30] remembering that i woke up for the first time in my life, and hopefully the last, in CAT FOOD… i go to put new sheets on my bed. i start with the sheets and my little bunny trailing behind me saying, “gocco help! gocco help!” but quickly become distracted by a place on the lower right bed poster finial thing where the finish has rubbed away due to an unfortunate habit that someone who *isn’t* me has had of draping things over it like it’s a hook. i decide i will swap that finial with the one on the other side so the spot won’t be as visible and won’t get worn any further. i unscrew one… unscrew the other… screw the first in the second hole… screw the second in the first hole… and that’s better! back to sheets. i have a train of thought roll through as i carry on with the sheets ranging from the wrinkles in the sheets to the need for new pillows because i keep reading about dust mites to finding a new bedskirt and then somehow it turns into how much i miss my horse, probably because i have a painting of him on the wall and approximately one million photos around… but a lot of my thought trains seem to end with that caboose, anyway. i think it’s often the one that says “okay you’ve done enough thinking, move along!!” i change into my fav shorts, realizing that it means i’m wearing the exact same outfit as yesterday, but ha! secretly, i have no problem with that! 😉

[12:00 pm] i change rocco’s diaper again, change his shirt, start a load of mostly steven’s workout clothes, and do the cat litter, which i do with my sidekick behind me saying, “gocco eee! gocco eee!” because i may be cringing, but he wants to see every detail of the process.

[12:20] after a morning of one little baby man repeatedly asking for “gaga papa houuu!” i, too, am ready for a quick jaunt over to the farm! at this point, i am just an irresponsible parent for having my child inside on such a beautiful 75 degree day. we hop in the car, at which point rocco is saying his toe hurts, so i take off his sock and shoe to find a big cut on one of his little piggies!!! no idea where that came from, but it’s bothering him, so i tell him we’ll get papa and gaga to help take care of it at the farm.

[12:30] pull up to the farm gate! there’s a package so i grab it and the mail to take up. we catch my sister and her bf who are back in town after a month away, yaaaay!!!! then they say bye and head out for errands. rocco has cereal with papa, forgetting all about his booboo… but then while he’s having cereal he announces “rocco booboo,” so he didn’t forget for long. i’m also noticing that he’s not ALWAYS necessarily saying “gocco” which breaks my heart!!!

[1:15] even though i always start getting extremely antsy about going to get maddalena starting at 1pm, i am going to pretend to be a chill human with time to spare, and i agree to bop over to a nearby little antique shop with my mom while rocco is being papa’s little mini human farm helper. 🙂 i also have anxiety about rocco having not yet napped, but papa, the shop, the barn, the donkeys, the tractor, the golf cart… that’s his happy place right there! he’ll be easy to distract for 30 minutes… right?

[1:50] we’re at this adorable little shop that’s literally 5 minutes away from the farm… but announcement!!! it’s 10 til 2!!! baby girl will be waiting for me soon! my mommy dearest knows i’m antsy, and she checks out in record time and we go back to the farm, where rocco is happily, but sleepily, chatting with the donkeys.

[2:11] we’re off to get sissy! only a tiny hair later than planned, but with plenty of time, still. i just like to get there on the early side and really soak up that carpool life. haha. within 5 minutes, roccybear has dozed into his car seat nap, haaallelujah!

[2:27] i do fun stuff in the carpool line like apply a shipping label to an amazon return using *scotch tape,* haha, and write a check for the pre-k teacher gift fund. again, i spy maggie pulling out, having already acquired a preschooler and a kindergardener of her own. 🙂 also, i think about how interesting it is that so many people drive range rovers. it’s like either range rovers or mini vans, and i just have to wonder if the range rover interior is especially practical or something? i love them from the outside! my next car will likely be neither a range rover nor a mini van, so i just like to ponder these things.

[2:42] got my girlllll!!!!!!! rocco is still snoozing, and madd catches me up on her day! all last week she was getting over a cold, and when i would pick her up she’d say how tired she was all day and how much she missed me. so, gosh!!! i’ve been worrying so much when she’s at school!! but today she’s all smiles and tells me stuff about friends she’s making and songs she’s learning. her teacher said she’s doing great making friends and it’s a huge relief that everything seems peachy today.

[2:55] home again, home again! i check the mail. it’s lame-o. also, i painted the mailbox black yesterday, and it’s still not my favorite mailbox on the planet, but i like it waaay better! it was previously kind of a dingy gray and needed sprucing for sure. rocco is officially awake due to sissy’s enthusiastic singing! 🙂 but that’s okay, it’s good timing. he’s still tired as i pull him out of the car and he snuggles me and says, “i-you, mama” [i love you!] which melts me to bits. we bring our stuff in. i ask maddalena if she forgot her water bottle at school because it appears to be missing… she confirms! ironically, i removed her name label from it just last night. anyway! we unload. after school snackage. but we don’t get too settled because we are off to play with friends in 30! as i unpack some of her things, i notice that she has something red on her sweater sleeve. it looks like marker? she says it’s carpet which confuses me greatly, so i let it go.

[3:30] nope, still here. the kiddos are happily coloring.

[3:43] after coloring on napkins, changing a diaper, putting shoes back on, switching laundry loads, running the dustbuster over scattered cat litter, etc. we are loading up and off to see friends! ahhhh yay. as long as all the kiddos get along well, our weekly friend time breathes LIFE into me!

[5:45] heading home from happy hour!!!! aka. our weekly scheduled afternoons of real talk, cheese, wine, and co-momming. 😉 the kiddos played hard and the weather was perfect for porching!

[6:00] steven is grilling and the little ones sit on the deck rail to watch, which is their new fav thing to do with daddy. and! it smells good!

[6:20] we eat dinner outside!!! there’s a chill in the air that is just crazy. the kiddos sit and eat at their little kids table, which gets me with its cuteness every time.

[6:30] jammie time! i take the bunners downstairs to get bedtime ready…

[6:40] during the week we’ve been getting in madd’s bed to read bedtime books at 7, but since it’s friday we sit down to watch a movie!! over the hedge is the pick. we’ve never seen it!

[8:00] steven carries madd and i carry rocco and we land on maddalena’s little twin bed and go straight for lights-out mode. daddy says goodnight, i wind up the music playing jemima puddleduck that plays a sweet little you are my sunshine lullaby, and they both end up falling asleep pretty quickly. i take rocco to his room and rock him a little longer to make sure he’s good and asleep, otherwise he’ll wake up when i put him down.

[8:34] well, i’ve ended up in rocco’s crib, which has become a thing lately. finally, i sneak out! i grab a kitty cat and close his door. our girl kitty, rosette, just loves to wake the kiddos up. in the family room, steven is watching anchorman on tv. i sit down, but i see on the monitor that rocco is tossing and turning and not sleeping well, so i worry. steven falls asleep on the couch… rocco seems to settle, as well. i get up and run the dishwasher, drink some water, check the pet bowls, turn down the bed. i sit back down and browse hurricane irma updates and get really nervous. i get up and wash my face. i’m trying a new face cream? we’ll see how that goes!

[9:30] i woke steven up from his couchland snoozes, and he made his way to the bed. i kissed him goodnight, asked if he needed any essential oils or anything? nope, he’s good. i move to the sunroom for my daily quiet time. i have a handful of books i’m working through! i start with my devotional just as rocco starts crying. he is sleeping so badly, and waaa, i don’t know why… wait. yes i do. i go to his room to find that all the extra cold-symptom drainage he’s been having today has upset his tummy and come back up the wrong way! poor baby!! i change his jammies and rub some essential oils on him. i feel terrible, too, because he’s wanted to nurse all evening, although that ship has officially sailed, but ugh, i figured it meant something was up. 🙁

[9:45] he’s not falling back to sleep at all. he seems miserable! i bring him to the couch with me. he’s stuffy and fussy and really frustrated. guess any kind of quiet time just wasn’t in the cards for me tonight!

[9:55] he’s finally fallen back to sleep on me as we sit on the couch… then i hear madd cough and fuss in her room and i think noooo no no!!! time to amp up the probiotics. fall has arrived with a not so friendly, cold-symptomy greeting! anyway, i watch a video on the ‘gram of a man making the most enormous pot of spaghetti with zucchini, and suddenly i am starving. oh well. baby boy seems to be feeling rotten even in his sleep so i am trying not to move!

[10:55] dozed off looking for irma updates and googling why a cat might put cat food in their sleeping humans bed. i grab my tiniest sleeping human, go get in the big bed, and cross my fingers that he sleeps okay!

[1:00 am] madd comes to our room crying. she’s completely hoarse and her ankle is hurting and she’s saying, “i don’t liiiike iiiit.” my poor baby girl! i rub oils on her and after holding her on the couch a little while, into the big bed she goes.

[3:00 am] rocco is coughing and coughing, so i take him out to the couch and rub some breathe oils on him til he settles. i must’ve dozed off? not really sure. next thing i know it’s going on 4, so i put him back in the big bed and decide to treat myself to a moment in the bathroom before returning to bed where i snuggle my two little sniffleheads, hoping we haven’t woken steven too much, and sleep a few more winks. 6:30 comes early… even on a saturday. 🙂

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…and voila!! there it was! a mostly decent day that ended in some relatively unfortunate circumstances… but if nothing goes too terribly awry, what more can you really ask for, right?! 🙂

let me tell you, though, my intense fear of time passing really makes me cherish even the most regular of normal days… and even though i sometimes wish the days were longer, chores fewer, that my babies loved sleeping at night as much as my husband does [i, on the other hand, wish that sleep was never even a requirement, and they need to stop taking after me in that regard!], that traveling was more convenient, that i had more “me” time [which i hate to even say because it just sounds selfish!], or that there were parts of my day that were even slightly more glamorous than finding a hidden space to set an ant trap. haha…

well, despite any of those silly thoughts, i really, really love this young family season of life. i love that even the hard days are softened by my babies’ easy laughter and warm hugs, and i love that even when they’re cranky and ticked off, it’s still more pleasant than when a full grown adult [or shudder… teenager!!!] is cranky and ticked off… i love that maddalena misses me during her days at preschool, because one day she will find it much easier to be apart! and even though i feel guilty when i don’t fulfill it, i love rocco’s mommy phase, because it’s genuinely just what he needs at age 2, and once again, i know it won’t always be that way.

so… these are the days, right! and this was just one of them. 🙂