Day in the life: Spring 2020

Life is a lot different than my winter DITL post I did. Today wasn’t completely a normal day during our shelter-in-place order. I had made up a cleaning schedule for myself and today happened to be bathrooms which I swear took way longer than I thought. I don’t normally clean this much, and I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. I didn’t have work to do, and I got to sleep in. Those two things really vary day-to-day.

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

Day in the Life: Spring 2020

Thursday, April 23rd

Chris is 37, Risa is 34, Olivia is 4.5, Emelia is 6.5 months, and Toby is 12 years old.

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5:40 am- Emelia wakes up for the first time. She slept from 11:30 pm to just now and that’s pretty amazing for us. Chris went to get her for me and I nurse her in bed and carry her back to her crib in her room. I’m able to fall asleep fairly quickly.

6:11 am- Apparently, she’s up again. I grab her and nurse her again, and end up falling asleep with her for a bit before bringing her back to her crib. I debate just staying up because I’m not tired anymore. I check my email. I probably should just get up. But I end up falling back to sleep.

9:35 am- Holy shit. It’s late. This is my life now. I hate waking this late, but I know my body needs it, so it is what it is. I get up and head to the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth. Chris comes in with the baby when I’m done. He said she woke up at 8:00 and he took her while he worked downstairs. God bless him. I take her out to the living room and put her on the blanket that perpetually sits out on the floor and grab her a few toys. I make some oatmeal, this crazy stuff with protein and grains but has more sugar than I want, but it tastes great. The coffee maker still has coffee in it, but the heat is now shut off. I pour some into a mug, add some heavy whip and heat it in the microwave. I sit on the couch to eat and drink my coffee while I entertain Emelia and read the news on my phone.

Olivia comes from downstairs to refill her water and say hi to me and the baby. She’s been into playing downstairs while watching TV lately and asks if I want to come down and watch Tangled with her. I tell her I will as soon as I put the baby down for her morning nap which is apparently going to be soon since Emelia is now rubbing her eyes. She usually goes down about two hours after she wakes in the morning. I go into the nursery and pull the curtains and turn on her white noise. Then I take her and head to our bedroom to change her and put her in her sleep sack. I don’t even use the changing table anymore since she’s so crazy during diaper changes now. I probably need to pass it on, but I need to find places for all the things currently stored on its shelves.

10:25 am- I settle down on the couch to nurse her and she falls asleep pretty quickly.

I bring her to her crib and shut the door. I sit back on the couch to finish my coffee. Chris came up to talk to me for a bit about how his day is going.

11:20 am- I had made up a cleaning schedule for myself just last week that I think I can finally stick to and today happens to be the heaviest day with cleaning the bathrooms. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t deep cleaned the bathrooms in forever, so I know it’s going to take awhile. I dilute my new Norwex Bathroom cleaner I got as a freebie into a spray bottle with water and spray down both the bathtub and our shower. Then I squirt cleaner into both toilets and start on the mirrors and sinks while I let those sit. I wipe down the tub and shower with microfiber, give them a second pass with water, and clean out the toilet bowls. I’m sweating as I finally get to wiping down the outside of the toilets, spraying some of my Thieves sprayon it as I clean since I love the smell.

12:20 pm- I’m finally done and realize the whole thing has taken me an hour and I haven’t even touched the floors or the third bathroom downstairs. Damn. I must get more efficient at this. I bring the cloths downstairs to throw in the laundry after the current load is done. Chris is up in the kitchen heating up the leftover spaghetti and meatballs from last night with Olivia. I need to cool off first before I eat. Olivia decides she doesn’t want the spaghetti, so she has an Uncrustable and an apple. I heat up my food and sit with Chris.

12:41 pm- Olivia gets her shoes and said she is going out in the backyard. We can hear the baby waking, so Chris goes to get her and she plays on the floor again while we clean up the kitchen and I do a spot sweep on the floors. There are a good amount of crumbs on the floor even though I had just did a full sweep and mop a couple of days ago.

1:05 pm- I settle on the couch to nurse the baby and respond back to some text messages from friends. Olivia appears in the windows out on the deck every so often. I can see she’s talking to herself. I love how she uses her imagination. I play on the floor with Emelia. She’s rolling on her own now. I change her out of her sleeper and into a long sleeve onesie. After a bit, I take her into our bedroom and go to work trying to clean the floor of our shower. I decide I need to mop the floor by hand since it’s probably been years since I really got into the corners. Don’t judge. I work on it until the baby gets grouchy.

2:15 pm- I take her and go sit back down on the couch. She’s fussy so I decide to put her down for a nap even though it’s earlier than I want. I change her diaper and come back out to the living room to see Olivia at the door to the deck. She’s found a worm that she shows me. I feign excitement (ew) and then she tells me she found something else and runs away. Oh God. She comes back. It’s a… something.

I bring the baby to the couch to finish nursing her to sleep.

2:40 pm- Emelia is fast asleep on me. I’m comfortable, so I keep reading articles on my phone.

3:00 pm- I put the baby down and head downstairs to fold the clothes from the dryer. Olivia comes inside and washes her hands, announcing she wants to play Pop the Pig with me downstairs.

There’s that smell again. Toby had barfed on the carpet over a month ago, and even after cleaning it, there’s a weird smell around the carpet every so often. I can smell it again. But when I get down and sniff the carpet, I can’t smell it. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t figure out where it’s coming from. I decide to make up some carpet cleaner of baking soda and essential oils to sprinkle on it tomorrow to see if that helps. Olivia wants to come with me, so we go upstairs after finishing our third game and she helps pour the baking soda into a mason jar. I get us some grapes and sharp cheddar slices for a snack. We go back downstairs and play another game, until I need to go to the post office.

3:58 pm- I get in the car and head to the post office to drop off a package. It’s nice out and I drive with the window down.

4:20 pm- I’m home and Chris is off work. I ask him to start chopping vegetables with Olivia while I make the stir fry sauce. Emelia’s woke up from her nap and is on the floor pulling her socks off and trying to roll over.

She finally succeeds and I cheer for her. She gives me a huge grin. I go back to the kitchen and start the cauliflower rice to eat with the stir fry. Olivia loves helping with dinner.

She watches Chris as he cooks everything up.

5:10 pm- Dinner’s ready. Olivia passes out the napkins and forks and I pour almond milk for Olivia and I. Chris brings Emelia to her high chair and she plays while we eat.

5:33 pm- We’re done, and Olivia is still finishing. I know she’s not crazy about stir fry, but she does end up eating her portion. I plant Emelia by Chris while he loads the dishwasher and I help Olivia clear the table and wipe her hands and face.

Then I pull Emelia out and play on the floor with her. Chris brings up the vacuum and then cleans the bathroom floor after I asked if he could help me. I make sure Emelia has toys around her and then I head downstairs to go clean the bathroom down there.

6:30 pm- Cleaning three bathrooms is a freaking lot of work. I put the microfiber cloths in the laundry to wash since I’m now done with the floors and bathrooms for the week. I received my big box of host gifts from the Norwex party I hosted and pull them all out for a photo. As I’m laying them out, Olivia says she wants a bath and I tell her it’s fine. Apparently Chris had already told her he was going to think about it. I didn’t realize it, and Olivia sticks her tongue out at Chris. I know how seamlessly she can pit us against each other, and I tell her since she stuck out her tongue at her dad, she lost her bath for the night. She loses it, crying and saying she was joking. I ask her if she wants to help me open the Norwex stuff. She recovers fairly quickly and asks if she can be in the picture with her unicorn towel.

7:00 pm- Emelia is rubbing her eyes, so I grab her diaper and wipes with her new sleeper and get her ready in our bedroom. I zip up her sleep sack, turn on her lullaby music, and draw the curtains. Then I sit in the rocker with the Boppy and nurse her. I can hear Chris getting Olivia ready for bed.

7:12 pm- The baby is fast asleep. I’m reading an article on my phone when I hear Olivia shrieking. She’s throwing a huge tantrum. Emelia opens her eyes from the sudden noise. I think I’ll stay in the nursery for a little longer. Olivia’s closet is on the other side of Emelia’s wall. She’s pounding on there or doing something like that. Holy crap, this kid.

7:23 pm- I think it’s safe to come out now. I lay the baby in her crib. She’s awake, but hopefully she’ll fall asleep soon. I change the machine to her white noise and say good night.

Olivia is apologetic. She’s torn apart her bedsheets and her stuffed animals are everywhere. She finishes cleaning up with Chris and he reads her one book since she’s lost the other two because of her tantrum. She’s feisty tonight and almost starts another before finally getting into bed. We all say prayers, and kiss and hug goodnight. Chris goes downstairs and I hear Emelia fussing. Hopefully, she’ll go to sleep. I head to my room to wash my face and change into pajamas. When I pass by Emelia’s room, she’s crying and screeching. We’ve been working on this, and I decide to let her cry a little bit longer to see if she’ll go to sleep on her own.

8:04 pm- I go downstairs. After a few minutes, I swear I hear crying still and I check the monitor. It looks like she’s asleep. We start watching Schitt’s Creek. Olivia appears downstairs a few minutes later saying she “bit her finger.” Chris walks her back upstairs. When he comes back, he tells me about her tantrum and what led up to it. Apparently, she was playing around and stuck her foot in his face on the couch. “Smell my feet!” she says. He said no and she got more and more agitated until it was all over from there.

“You just can’t anticipate with her sometimes when it’s going to come on,” I tell him. Shit. He announces he wants a blizzard and I agree.

8:37 pm- Chris leaves to drive to Dairy Queen. I catch up on notes for this post under the blanket and watch Grey’s Anatomy while I wait for him to get home.

8:55 pm- He gets back and hands me my Blizzard. Heath. I die. I could eat this every week.

9:30 pm- After, we watch Schitt’s Creek and I fold the microfiber cloths.

9:48 pm- I open my laptop again and see an email from an editor about a writing opportunity. The pay seems pretty decent and I decide to write her back tomorrow requesting some more information.

10:28 pm- We decide it’s bedtime. He shuts the TV off and we say goodnight to Toby who’s snoozing in his bed. We shut the lights off and head upstairs. We brush our teeth, and I put some lotion on.

10:40 pm- Chris goes to open up Emelia’s door a bit. I diffuse some oils in the diffuser and turn on the white noise. I get in bed to read for a bit. Chris rolls over and is soon asleep. I know I should go to bed, but if I’m not tired when I shut the lights off, it will be hard to fall asleep.

11:33 pm- I yawn and put the book on the nightstand. Lights out. Emelia sleeps until 3:00 luckily.