Day In The Life: Summer 2018

This summer’s day in the life was the day we went to the county fair. Because I was having some seriously boring days of work, and you definitely didn’t want to read about that. My sister had slept over the night before, so I didn’t get to bed until after 11:30. We were heading to the county fair in the morning, Olivia’s first.

You can read more Day in the Life posts by clicking here.

Day in the Life: Summer 2018

Sunday, July 29th

Chris is 35, Risa is 32, Olivia is 2.5, and Toby is 9 years old.

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3:49 am- I hear Olivia open our door and shut it again. This hasn’t happened in quite some time—her waking in the middle of the night. I groan to myself because it’s so freaking early. She comes in bed with me and nurses while I close my eyes. After a while, I carry her back to her own bed and she luckily falls asleep. I stumble back to my room and have to pee. 

6:03 am- Olivia comes in again, up for the day. I stick a pillow over my head, but she finds me anyway, delighted that we’re playing a new game. We nurse again, and then she goes out into the living room with Chris. We have a new weekend deal—I get to sleep in one of the days, and the other I get up with her so he can go on one of his long runs. I fall back asleep pretty quick.

8:30 am- I decide to get up, though I know I could lay in bed for another few hours easily. I miss the days where I actually feel rested, but that was before this beautiful little miracle baby came along and I guess I need to feel grateful. I use the bathroom and snap a quick morning photo before showering and heading out to go make some coffee. Chris is downstairs with Olivia and Natalie is still sleeping downstairs. I pour a cup and sit out on the couch reading, taking advantage of some quiet time because it so rarely happens. Olivia and Chris come upstairs and she runs over to me to hug me. Chris takes her to go shower. She loves showering with us, but always shrieks and screams at the top of her lungs when she’s with Chris and the water falls on her. (She doesn’t do that with me.) I keep reading and drinking coffee until she comes flying back down the hallway with a head of wet curly hair. 

9:06 am- After taking her to the bathroom to go potty, I send Olivia downstairs to wake up Natalie and I finish getting ready, getting dressed, drying my hair and throwing it up in a ponytail. I put together a backpack of extra clothes for Olivia, snacks, sunscreen, and water bottles. Olivia and Natalie come upstairs, and Olivia can’t even handle the fact that her auntie is still there from last night. All she can talk about is the fair. “You come wit me, Nannie??” “I go to da fair!”

10:35 am- We all head out the door, and I have to run back inside to grab my sunglasses and Olivia shrieks because she needs her Moana doll. Finally, we’re ready to drive to the fair but first, we have to stop at the gas station. Olivia, I’m assuming because she’s smarter than I give her credit for, remembers stopping at numerous gas stations on our trip to Iowa and suddenly announces she has to go potty!!!! Since she’s potty training and I can hardly refuse her, much to her amusement, I unbuckle her and we go inside the store. I hate gas station bathrooms—she loves them. I pull her underwear down and she lightly tinkles. “All done!” she hollers. I wipe her, flush, and wash our hands. Chris and Natalie are at the ATM and Natalie is buying breakfast. Somehow, Olivia talks her into buying a little block of cheese and they split it in the car. I’m half disgusted and mostly really jealous. 

11:00 am- We arrive at the fair and park, and a worker pulls up in a golf cart to offer to drive us up to the entrance. Olivia laughs hysterically because, hey, any excuse for a golf cart ride. After we buy tickets, we start down one street, buying some food and stopping to climb into a truck. 

She pets some bunnies and gets to visit the chicken barn. There’s even a “cow” she can “milk” which my farm husband was all too happy to show her.

We pay the $6 for her to ride a pony, because it’s her first time, and I get all sorts of teary watching her having the time of her life.

There may have been 64 other pictures of this because toddler on a pony. She also rides the carousel with me and eats ice cream. Natalie and I buy purses and we watch a llama costume contest. Of course, she wants her face painted, and since it’s a day of adorable firsts, Chris gets her Cookie Monster.

I am surprised at how still she sits. Another sign that she’s growing up into a little girl.

Of course, a face painting isn’t enough, and she wants the balloon animal too but is sadly denied.

2:50 pm- Olivia is getting cranky, and our feet hurt, so we pack up to leave. I’m fully expecting her to fall asleep in the car, but she doesn’t. 

3:00 pm- We arrive home. Chris takes Olivia to wash her feet and face because both are looking pretty rough. I say goodbye to Natalie, and Olivia goes potty and gets her pull-up on.

3:14 pm- Chris says he’s going to make us some french press coffee, and while he does that, I nurse her in her room. It doesn’t take her long to fall asleep in my arms. Once she does, I lay her in her bed, and cover her, and turn her white noise on. Then I head downstairs to work on my article before dinner. It’s for a publication I’ve never written for, and I already spent a few hours on it yesterday. 

5:02 pm- Olivia is up. I can hear her running down the hall. I put the laptop away as she comes down into the basement. She wants to nurse again, so we sit on the couch while she plays with her Frozen dolls. We’re supposed to be weaning, but some days she wants to nurse more, and I don’t know why that is.

After that, we had upstairs and she goes potty and I change her back into underwear. She’s crying (who knows, but sometimes she wakes up on the wrong side of the toddler bed), so Chris takes her downstairs and puts on TV for her to watch while we prep the hamburgers for dinner.

5:42 pm- I come downstairs to check on her, while Chris is grilling and catch Olivia drinking a Dasani. “My pop!” she exclaims, sipping from the straw.

6:00 pm- We sit down to dinner of burgers and tater tots. I’m still on my low carb program, so I skip the tots (reluctantly) and eat my burger with a lettuce bun and watch Olivia eat three carrots and three pickles, things she doesn’t usually eat. She dips her carrots in ketchup with gusto.

6:30 pm- We finish with dinner, and I help Olivia wash up in the bathroom. Chris goes outside to spray the tomato plants. We’re trying to prevent the tomatoes from getting blight, but it’s not looking good. I start cleaning the kitchen and Olivia really wants to go outside to be with Chris. He comes back in and gets her and they go back out together. After a while, he brings her back inside, so he can finish up. She’s crying because she can’t go back out and I’m trying to finish up all the dishes while she clings to my legs.

7:00 pm- I’m finally done, so Olivia and I head downstairs. I turn on PBS for her and sit on the couch to catch up on notes for this post while she watches TV.

7:15 pm- Olivia needs to go to bed, but she won’t go without me. I head upstairs with her and Chris comes back in from the backyard. He said he’s worried about the tomatoes and pulled off a bunch of leaves that have blight. I’m doubting we’ll even get any tomatoes this year. Olivia and I go into the bathroom and she says she has to poop. I sit on the edge of the tub and keep her company while we read to each other. Chris comes into the bathroom and tells me he’ll take over with her. I head to the bedroom to take a shower.

7:35 pm- Chris is reading to Olivia in her bed. I take my nightly vitamins and go and refill my weekly pill box. Nothing crazy, just my Effexor for anxiety and magnesium. I grab my gallon water jug from the fridge and refill it to 100oz, what I’m supposed to be drinking every day, and put it back in the fridge. I go back downstairs after kissing her goodnight and Chris takes her to brush her teeth. I have to print out some forms for the new website I’m writing for and when I finish filling them out, I open my laptop and start editing my article. 

8:23 pm- While I’m working, Olivia comes downstairs and sees Chris and I sitting on the couch. She says her knee hurts. Chris goes with her upstairs to put her back to bed. I keep working on the article.

9:30 pm- I decide to take a break and eat a snack. I heat up a brownie from my program and it’s absolutely delicious. Chris is watching something on TV and I sit back down to keep chugging. Articles don’t normally take this long for me, but this one had three expert interviews and it was the first big research piece I’ve written. 

10:30 pm- I decide to call it quits and pack up my laptop for tomorrow. Olivia is going to daycare, so I make sure her bag is packed and sitting on the stairs next to my work bag. I’m planning on heading to a coffee shop in the morning and turning in my article. Chris is playing video games and I say goodnight to him before heading upstairs to get ready for bed. In my room, I plug my phone in and do a quick check on Olivia on the monitor. I brush my teeth and turn on my own white noise machine. Then I get into bed, filling out the day in my 5-year journal, before snuggling down and grabbing my library book.

10:45 pm- I’m still in bed reading when Chris comes up to bed. He kisses me goodnight, and I stay up a little longer, trying to get sleepy enough to go to bed.

11:20 pm- I finally turn the lights out. Olivia luckily sleeps all night until 6:00 am.