A day in the life...

So I was thinking today how soon things are really going to change around here. Soon we will potty train Marissa, which will change many of our routines. I will be done working sometime in January, and then sometime in February, Arianna Grace will join us. And I wanted to have some kind of a record of how we usually spend our days. So ignore if you'd like, but here is a typical day for us:

7:45am - We no longer use a monitor in our room to hear Marissa when she wakes up (she was starting to wake up in the middle of the night for stupid things, and it was really starting to wear me out!), but I assume she usually wakes up moments before my alarm goes off for the first time. Sometimes she comes into our room, but most of the time she gets out of her bed, turns her light on using a chair, and plays with her babies and doll house. She LOVES putting her babies in her old baby swing (which used to be in her closet, til she discovered it when I was digging for baby stuff - now she keeps telling me how she's going to share it with her "baby 'tisser'" i.e. "baby sister"!), changing their diapers, and singing to them. Some days she wakes up earlier (if Dan sees her before he leaves at 7:25) and she still plays for a long time. (Yes, I know this is amazing and wonderful, but as soon as we start potty training we won't do this anymore)
8:00am - I usually hit snooze til this time, and then get myself ready for a day at work. She likes to watch me, or run back and forth between my room and her babies in her room.
8:10am - Time to change her diaper and get her dressed. Most of the time her hair is wild and crazy, so I spray it with some water and brush it out so it curls a little. Some mornings she loves getting sprayed, and begs me to spray her hands, and hair again and again. Other mornings she has a hysterical meltdown because she didn't want to get wet that day.
8:15am - We go downstairs, she puts her purple shoes on, and I start toasting our waffles. We sit down at the table, her next to me in a big-person chair, and eat our waffles. Most of the time she doesn't finish in time, so she gets a plastic baggie to put her waffle in (no syrup obviously!) so she can finish it in the car on the way to work.
8:30am - We drive 25 minutes to work, where I watch H (3 years) and M (15 months).
9:00am - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, H's mom takes him to preschool as soon as we get there. M and Marissa have about an hour to play before it's time for M's bottle and nap, and they all play together on days H doesn't have school.
10:00am - Diaper change, bottle, and nap for M, tv time for H and Marissa. When I first started this job, the mom told me H watched a lot of tv, and we have kept up with that pattern. Lol. I limit it though, and H and Marissa actually play very well together lately (not so much back in the beginning when they didn't understand each other's "language" and H hit and pushed Marissa all the time). They have conversations with each other, they voluntarily share toys with each other, take turns very nicely, and generally don't need too much interference from me.
11:30am - M wakes up from her nap, and we all head upstairs to play in the bedrooms. H and Marissa love to push around his garbage truck and firetruck, and they take turns nicely. They also love to use H's tools to "fix" everything in M's room.
12:00 - Diaper changes all around, then back downstairs for lunch. I usually scrape together whatever I can find, because the family isn't the greatest at getting regular groceries. But I always manage to find a main dish, veggies, and fruit, and the kids eat pretty well. H and Marissa eat the same thing, and I only make one thing each day. I will not let them be too picky! M is at an awkward stage with eating now (I hate the early-finger-food stage!), and usually only eats fruits at lunch (although I hear she usually eats a huge breakfast, so I guess that makes up for it).
12:45pm - Usually someone has pooped. So more diaper changes. Then play time.
1:00pm - The mom comes home (or downstairs if she worked in her office that day) and we go HOME!
1:45pm - We get home, remove all our cat-hair-covered clothes, and place them in one big pile in the laundry room to be washed at the end of the week. Naptime for Marissa.
2:00pm - My quiet time! I eat lunch, watch tv, and spend time on the computer. I almost NEVER do any housework during this time. It's my ME time!
3:30-4:00pm - Marissa wakes up. Depending on her mood when she wakes up, sometimes we play in her room, I do some laundry, or we come straight downstairs to play. I often clean up the living room now too, because she is such a good helper at putting away toys, and I can't vacuum without her, since she insists it's her job to push the "on" button.
5:00pm - I start cooking dinner, depending on what we're having.
5:30pm - Dan gets home from work. Since he rides his bike to and from work every day, he gets a quick shower, then it's time for dinner! Dan is in charge of motivating Marissa to eat a decent meal for dinner since I feed her every other meal, plus extra kids at lunch. Feeding toddlers is not one of my favorite things to do!
6:00pm - Playtime! Lately Dan has been playing CRAZY WILD games with Marissa, as I have been too tired to blink. Lol. They are hysterical to watch though!
8:00pm - Bedtime for Rissa. We brush her teeth (she loves doing it after us!), read a book, then sing some songs (Jesus loves me, then the "Marissa song" [M-A-R-I-S-S-A, spells Marissa everyday - to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle], then Twinkle, Twinkle). She goes to bed like a pro. No complaints usually, and she lays right down and stays in bed. Sometimes she talks and sings to herself for a while (up to an hour!), but she always falls asleep wonderfully.
8:15pm - Our alone time! We are really into a lot of tv shows this season, so we watch them together.
10:00pm - I shower at night because I'm too tired to get up early enough to shower before Marissa wakes up in the morning.
10:15pm - Bedtime! Dan can fall asleep in seconds even if he's not exhausted. But I've been sooooo tired lately, for obvious reasons. An early bedtime is wonderful, although our friends make fun of us for being "old" already

That's our typical week day. Weekends are lazy, relaxing, boring, and wonderful! And while I definitely wish I didn't have to work my job still, Marissa loves going there and playing with her friends, and I think it's a really good experience for her. It's also taught her a lot about babies, which will obviously be helpful in the coming months.

My parents are coming this weekend! They haven't seen Marissa since July, and she has obviously changed a TON since then. I'm really looking forward to it, and then it's almost time for Thanksgiving break!