Right now, I’m a stay at home mama of one. Our one and a half year old boy is at a really fun stage and I’m loving that we have a more consistent routine than we did when he was a baby. Before being at home, I was a kindergarten teacher so my days were very routined and organized and I loved that. The past year and a half has been quite a shift in what my daily routine looks like, and I know that routine is about to change again in five months when the next little babe comes along!
I wanted to do a post about some of the things that make our daily routine enjoyable, smooth, and what that routine looks like for us right now. It will be interesting to compare this routine to what a routine with two looks like in several months! To be honest, I can’t quite imagine it and mostly I imagine a bit of chaos. :) Which I’m sure it will be at first.
In the mornings, we wake up (whenever Landon decides to wake us up. That time has switched a lot over the year. For a time it was consistently 6:00. The last few weeks it’s been 7:00 or a bit later, which we relish in!)
We’re in a unique situation right now in that my husband is in school and not working so we get a lot of ‘daddy time’ too, which we love. One of us gets up to make coffee, get Landon’s breakfast ready, and L inevitably points to the remote and says “Paw?!” (his cute way of asking to watch Paw Patrol- his favourite Netflix show.) We usually let him watch an episode while he eats breakfast and Kevin and I get a few minutes to wake up and chat. If Kevin is not home, I use this time to wake up, check my phone, read a quick devotional, etc.
Once we’re done with breakfast, Landon usually plays with his toys for a good while. Right now, he loves his Little People castle and also loves playing with his cars. He also loves having books read to him.
He is finally down to one nap, which is really nice because it gives us time to have some kind of morning outing. This usually consists of going for a walk or to somewhere like the library for story time or playing with the train table and taking out books. After an outing, we come home, make some lunch, and L goes down for a nap around 12:00.
Ahhh, break time for Mama. Sometimes I wish I was a little more productive with nap time. I usually use the first half hour to unload the dishwasher or tidy up. But I really try to prioritize doing something for myself during this time. Whether thats checking blogs I like, calling a friend, writing, reading, etc. Depending on how long he naps, sometimes I’ll just lay down and try to nap a bit myself.
L usually wakes up around 2-2:30. I find we need an afternoon outing because there is just way too much time between waking up from nap time and dinner time. Places I love to go are Indigo (they also have some fun toys and a train table that L loves), to visit a friend and do a play date, a walk with my mom or a friend, or we do something simply like grab groceries and run a few errands. This usually takes us about an hour and then we come home and L will play some more. Lately, I’ll put a show on for him while I start making dinner. A few other shows he likes right now are Clifford and Ruby & Max. I always kind of struggle with putting on the TV for him, but I feel comfortable with it if it is limited.
We are early dinner eaters. It’s nice because Kevin is usually home early other than a couple of days he’s in school so we have the flexibility to eat early. We’ll sit down for dinner around 5-5:30. After dinner, we usually do an activity together as a family (like a walk or just playing around with toys). However, if we ate something like spaghetti, Landon usually goes up with one of us for his bath while the other cleans up.
Generally, bath time starts at 6:30 and we put Landon down for bed at 7:00. We’ve done a bath every single night basically since he was born. It just seems to be a nice activity to start settling him for bed time and he's used to it now so it just kind of stuck. I think we started putting him down at 7:00 for bed when he was around 4-5 months. He didn’t sleep through the night more consistently until 11 months, but I have to say that having the evening with my husband is just the best. I’m sure once baby #2 arrives, we will miss that quality time together.
Kevin and I like to keep things low key in the evening. Sometimes he has homework and I’ll do my own thing. Usually, I’m pretty exhausted from being pregnant and chasing around a 1 1/2 year old all day. :) We love to watch Netflix together or play a card game and eat dessert.
I have to go to bed really early when I’m pregnant. In my first trimester, I start fading around 8:00! Now that I’m in my second trimester, I usually last until 9-9:30. I’ll usually get ready for bed around then, read a little bit in bed and try to have the lights out at 10-10:30. I’m not an amazing sleeper (especially when pregnant) so I have to stick to a good routine when it comes to bedtime if I want to try and get a good night’s rest.
Sleep, wake up, and repeat!
I really love our routine right now and am loving the crisp, fall weather! I’m a bit nervous for when the cold winter temperatures arrive, but I’m determined to continue to get outside with L. It will just take an hour of bundling up beforehand. ;)
Being home is so different from having a consistent work schedule so I find that sticking to a routine makes me feel a little more ‘normal’ as a stay at home mama. What about you? What routines work for you if you have young kiddos? What was the switch in routine like from having one to two?
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