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A Typical (hard) Day In The Life

 One thing that I know for sure is this: not all days are created equally.

As a most-of-the-time SAHM, I've become familiar with the great days, and the super challenging ones. Each night I go to bed  optimistic that I'm gonna land on a great day the following morning, but with two toddlers going through developmental changes at the same time, the going gets rough!


I'm hiding out in the bath as I type this. It's 21:36. Jake fell asleep about 30 minutes ago after a 2 hour long bedtime battle.

That kinda day.


If you ever wanted to know what it's like to have two toddlers, born 11 months and 22 days apart, here ya go!



6AM. Woke up to Theo poking me and screaming 'Stella! SKY!' (The Paw Patrol girl character, Stella in French, Sky in English, my toddler is fancy and bilingual). 

'Sky is in your rubber boot, Honey', I groan as I nudge hubby to get up and let me 'sleep in'. Today I can technically stay in bed until 7, but I don't end up falling back asleep, so I laze around a bit then head to the living room.

Jake isn't up yet. I grab a coffee, check my emails, Instagram and a rundown of the news.

Within a few minutes, I hear, 'Helllloooooo. Hello momma. Momma. MOMMA!'. Jake is standing in the hallway looking at me mischievously. Here we go. And the rest of the day looks like this....


Cut up watermelon for the boys and myself. Jake wants MY watermelon and screams until I give it to him. Change diapers. Give Theo a banana. Give them both orange 'cake'. Theo sees a mini muffin tin on the counter and it reminds him of what we put paint in. Screams until I agree to let him paint. Set up station with paint in muffin tin. Only paint I have is acrylic. Let them make 3 designs each. Jake puts his hands in the paint and smears all over the table. Off to wash hands. Wash table. Rinse out muffin tin and paintbrushes. Jake pulls off a poop diaper and gets it all over the floor. Theo decides to get naked. Check time. Its 8:01. Show them YouTube videos to get them dressed.  Take out Play-Doh. Help them make Play-Doh 'noodles' but Theo doesn't like how I'm connecting them to make a big noodle and starts screaming. Try to see if they want to play outside on terrace while I garden a bit. Jake takes a cherry tomato and starts inspecting in. Big brother arrives on scene, steals cherry tomato, pushes little brother down. Jake starts screaming. I water tomatoes quickly and pick him  up. See neighbour (also watering tomatoes) and apologize for all the noise. He is sympathetic and says he was at a baby shower yesterday with a lot of children so my kids look like angels in comparison  (probably not true, but so kind of him to say).

Get Jake inside with TV so I can quickly weed the basil and bring garbage outside. We go in the room and play a bit. I start an article but have to check on the boys several times when I hear fighting. Have my second coffee. Eat a banana. 

10:15- first attempt to get Jake to nap. He is playing games  and runs out of his room as soon as I leave. Repeat. Repeat. He falls asleep at 11, after I've lay down with him for 20 minutes. Poor Theo has a bad cough and is lying on the couch while this is going down. As soon as I get out of Jake's room I go to Theo. He's exhausted but I doubt he'll sleep.  I try anyways. Nope. We read some books. The doorbell rings, dog goes nuts. Shit. It's DHL. Delivering my essential oils cause I'm basic like that. Grateful that Jake  didn't wake up.

Go back inside. Start making lunch. Sweet potato and lentil salad and tomato, basil, mozzarella salad with veggie burgers on the menu. Theo keeps coming in the kitchen as I'm cooking. Hides Paw Patrol toys in various drawers. Quite innocent, but he's loud. Makes a constellation pattern with every bowl. I ask him if it's Orion. 

Serve him a plate. He doesn't like to eat without Jake so he just takes a bite and goes back to loud Paw Patrol play. I try to finish my article and keep 'shhhushing' Theo.

We get Jake up at 1, and the boys sit down to eat, but don't eat much. I make a coffee. We play outside again. Fold laundry in the boys room. Theo takes Jake's mattress off the bedframe after being told not to. He is wheezing due to his cold and I keep telling him to stop doing so many strenuous things. He wants to bring Jake's mattress in his room but it gets stuck in the hallway. Screams. 

I'm trying to just finish the basket of clothes and put everything away. Try to get them to help sort clothes into piles or take what's theirs. Theo is interested for 2 Paw Patrol shirts and then abandons. Back to mattress to try and push it into his room. As I'm bringing clothes into our bedroom, boys follow and run into our bed. Throw all bedding on the floor. Jump in it. Take down the 3 paintings above our bed. Pull books off shelves. I tidy up and get them out, lock door. We take a Eucalyptus bath. Most relaxing 15 minutes of the day. Get dressed. Play. Daddy is home at 5. Theo is almost crashing on the couch because of the cold and no nap, but we don't let him sleep yet. Thomas makes them dinner. They eat. Thomas brings Jake to the store, I try to put Theo to bed. He wants Daddy. Wait for Daddy to return, but by then Theo is less interested in bed. Finally falls asleep, lots of coughing. I run off to take a bath alone. 

Jake refuses bed at 7:30, so we make dinner. Fondue. Jake keeps interfering but he's cute so its OK. Try bed again at 8. Nope. Screaming. Singing. Laughing. Try again at 8:30. Nope. 9. FINALLY.

Start crying with hands up in a 'what is this???' pose. Husband looks sympathetic. Sends me for another bath. 


Sit in bath and feel discouraged but also look at cute videos of the boys from the weekend. 


<3

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