Lovelies, we have another installement in our "Day in the Life of..." series today; this one is from Becca, a stay at home mom to two little girls. I love, love, love reading the posts from SAHM's, because I think there are a lot of misconceptions about what moms do all day, and these posts are real life!
1:15 Beatrix wakes to nurse. She doesn’t usually wake till 3ish but is maybe teething. Or has a cold. Or?! Just baby-ing. I told a friend recently that staying at home with young kids is like being in the most intense sophomore year of high school relationship. There are such extreme highs and lows and emotional eating and list making and crying and singing along to the radio and someone is always, always, messing with your mind.
Beatrix eats and laughs and wants to play and I am SO TIRED. Josephine – who reappeared in our bed toward the end of my pregnancy and hasn’t made her way back to her room – rolls over and mumbles in her sleep that it is her turn for all the cupcakes. Sigh.
2:15 I give up the ghost and wake my husband. He puts Beatrix in the swing (also in our room) and we all fall back to sleep.
5:50 Beatrix wakes and nurses back to sleep. My husband gets up and makes coffee.
7:00 Josephine gets up and goes to watch terrible Bananas in Pajamas and eat breakfast spaghetti.
7:30 I get up and get coffee and my husband leaves for work. I have a second cup of coffee and read Josephine a few books. We go play princesses in her room and get her dressed (tee shirt and hula skirt – very Man Repeller Jr.) It is hard to find time with just her these days. I try when I can to stop drop and play/read/apply Lip Smackers. Sometimes people ask why I stay at home. I think SAHM often have to defend their decision and in doing so come across as martyring themselves – confiding that they would love to work but it’s ‘just the right thing for their kids’ or lamenting that it’s much harder than anyone can ever know. I don’t really identify with that. I love hanging out with my girls – not even the taking care of them part – but the literal laying on the rug and talking about what a poop cake would taste like part of it all. And not going to work. I fracking love not going to work.
8:30 Beatrix wakes up. I let Josephine look at all the never worn make-up in my make-up drawer in an effort to make the bed without her diving onto it mid sheet swoosh. She asks (again) when she can wear manscarna on her eyelashings and I tell her when she is a teenager. I get dressed. I love love love clothes but most days I feel like I fall somewhere weird and sloppy. Like if Punky Brewster had started teaching Jazzercise. Josephine tells me I should wear a ‘pop of lipstick.’ We all read and play in their room for a bit. I dress her, nurse her, and put the massive stroller together.
9:45 We leave to walk to the library for story time. Beatrix dozes in the stroller.
Thank goodness for plastic. I shake her hula skirt dry.12:30 We leave and walk home. Josephine tells me everything that just happened when we were at the library. Beatrix falls asleep and Josephine sings a bunch of songs. I remind her that the baby is sleeping so she sings in a very loud stage whisper. She still shouts some of the lyrics to keep me on my toes. She tells me it’s just an accident when she sings loud because the words just jump that high out of her mouth.
1:00 Lunch/Books/Rest time. Josephine is starting to drop her nap so some days she falls asleep after stories; other days she lays and talks to herself and plays like her fingers are princesses (a la The Shining but sweeter) and I let her up after 45 minutes. While she rests I do dishes and laundry, bringing Beatrix along to sit on the rug and play. Josephine doesn’t fall asleep. Sigh. I could let her rest longer but then she will fall asleep later and bedtime will be an eternity.
2:15 Josephine watches Mulan and plays while I nurse Beatrix to sleep. I hold the baby and read the kindle and we just loaf. Josephine pees and unravels the toilet paper down the hall and into the living room to show me how she wipes. She did this on Sunday and I cracked up. Today I tell her that it was a funny surprise when she did it on Sunday but that it isn’t a funny surprise today because I have already seen it. She does it three more pees. She is convinced I will crack up again. I do not.
4:00 Beatrix wakes up and we all go into the kitchen to prep dinner. I give Josephine soft food and a knife to cut. Then we read more books (!) and draw and have a dance party.
5:15 My husband gets home. We have dinner. Josephine plays on the computer while I nurse Beatrix and my husband does the dishes. By “playing on the computer” I mean that Josephine watches creepy nursery rhyme puppet shows and KinderEgg videos and Russian cartoons on Youtube.
6:00 Bath for Josephine (and Tinkerbell and Barbie and Smee and Olaf and Ariel….)
6:30 Josephine watches a few minutes of Bob’s Burgers (a current strange but we will happily take it
favorite) and we read 3 books.
7:00 We all get in bed. Beatrix nurses to sleep. Josephine falls asleep right away. I transfer the baby to her pack and play. Hang out with my husband. Read on the couch while he works on his lap top and watches terrible TV.
9:00 Beatrix wakes up (another random) and I nurse her back to sleep. I fall asleep, too. Wild nights.
