A day in the life {with an 18 month old}

Life with a toddler is full. Full of messes, full of outfit changes, full of stories, full of laughter and full of crazy. I love capturing what a day in our life looks like at different stages so here we are at a year and a half. And here's what a day in our life looks like...

6:30ish AM: Aiden is up. I go and get him from his crib, change his diaper and bring him out to the couch with his sippy cup of milk and his stuffed fox who we lovingly call, Mr. Fox. We usually cuddle on the couch and read books together for at least 20 minutes. I love this slow transition into our day. Sometimes the cats join in for cuddle time too. Aiden's favorite books right now are: Little Blue Truck, Trains, Goodnight, Construction Sight. Any clue what his interests are? Haha.

After we cuddle, Aiden plays in the family room while I fix breakfast. This kid loves chocolate chip waffles so that is his main breakfast entree on repeat almost every single day. I try to mix it up with oatmeal and yogurt or bananas and toast, but waffles are his favorite. My parents got Aiden this Thomas the Train ride on and he is obsessed. We take walks with him every day and sometimes he even joins us at the breakfast table.

After breakfast we get dressed and play outside because this child is a huge fan of the outdoors. Since I knew we would be getting in the water table later, we put on our wet clothes, but we had to walk up and down all our neighbor's driveways with Thomas and Mr. Fox first. 

I scored this water table at a Mother of Twins sale for 12 bucks. We have gotten more than our money's worth from it. 

After we play, it's time to cross some things off the to-do list so we put on some real clothes and head to a local market we like to shop at called Pipkins. They have tons of fresh produce and Aiden likes to run around in their garden area after we shop. Aiden likes to point out all the produce and "help me" put it in the bag. "More Nana!" "More Apple!"

12:00ish Then it's back home to eat lunch. Aiden's favorite lunch lately is an English Muffin Pizza, Veggie Straws and some type of Applesauce I make. Sometimes I mix in Sweet Potatoes, other times it's carrots, but he loves any homemade concoction I make and it's so easy.

This EzPz mat is a life saver for Toddler meal time! I wrote about it in this post.

After lunch, it's nap time. Aiden has never been a long napper so I'm lucky if he naps a solid hour, but I'll take what I can get. While Aiden naps I throw in a load of laundry, clean some dishes or meal prep. Or some days when I'm just plain tired, I sit on the couch and catch up on an episode of Nashville. After Aiden wakes up, he requests more "B" aka milk and we might turn on an episode of Thomas per Aiden's request. "Choo Choo on."

If I decide to actually cook a meal, this would be when I do some meal prep. On tonight's menu, an easy crock pot meal: Italian Meatball & Gnocchi Soup. So good!

Drew gets home around 4:30 and Aiden is in heaven. They usually run around outside if it's nice out so I can finish up dinner or we might take a family walk around the neighborhood. From our front door, Aiden usually heads straight to our neighbor's garage and "borrows" her kid's toys. Good thing we have nice neighbors. Then it's time to eat, play a little more and then around 6:30, Aiden is exhausted so the three of us head to his room to get ready for bed.

7:00 Drew and I read Aiden his favorite bedtime books, then I rock Aiden for a few minutes and lay him down in his crib. I usually just stand above him and watch him sleep for a minute or two. I always thank God for giving me my precious little boy. He brings our family so much joy! Every single day with him is a gift.

See my other "Day in the life" posts below...

A day in the life with a 15 month old
A day in the life with a 10 month old

A day in the life with a 6 month old

What does a day in your life look like?

A day in the life {with a 15 month old}

Life with my little guy is just so much fun. I want to able to look back and remember what a day in the life with him looked like at different stages because he is growing and changing so quickly. Here's what a  day in the life with a 15 month old looks like in my house...

7AM Aiden is up. He stands up and starts babbling in his crib. I bring him into bed and we snuggle until one of us decides it's time to get up. Usually it's Aiden. On Saturdays Drew usually makes us pancakes while Aiden and I read books and play in the family room.

8:30 After breakfast it's play time. Aiden loves being read to and he definitely has his favorite books that he wants us to read over and over and over. His current favorites are: Blue Hat, Green Hat, Here We Go, Peek a Who? and any Thomas book. I love that he can choose books on his own now. He picks them out, walks them over, sits in my lap and says "book, book, book!"

He is also very in to every kind of vehicle. Right now the hot ticket items are Hot Wheels cars. You'd think he would be too small to play with these and that he would just stick them in his mouth, but he actually plays with them and interacts with them correctly. We counted the other night and he has a total of 47 Hot Wheels. My husband had to buy him his own car suitcase. We are in big trouble.

10:30 We are slowly transitioning from two naps to one, but right now he still occasionally takes his morning nap around 10:30. I know he's tired when he goes into the kitchen, stands in front of the fridge and requests his "B." We have no idea where that name comes from, but "B" is milk. I think it is just the cutest thing ever. He drinks his "B" in my lap while we watch an episode of Thomas the Train or Praise Baby. When he starts grabbing my hair that means he is ready for a nap. 
11:30 He usually naps about an hour so when he wakes up, it's time to get ready for the day and eat lunch. On weekends we try to get out of the house for lunch and errands. Today we went to Tom & Chee. So good.

Then we hit up IKEA to look for some new furniture for our basement renovation. Aiden loves the car and enjoys singing songs in his car seat that include a combination of the words "Mama, Dada, Bubba and YaYa" (YaYa is what he calls my Mom and he lovingly refers to himself as Bubba.)

Aiden loves to "help" and would rather push the cart than sit in it. We wandered around IKEA for about a half hour in the above position.

4:00 If he takes a second nap, it is around 3:30 or 4 and it is a short one, but he almost always wakes up happy. My new favorite thing he does, is gives kisses on demand. I ask for a kiss, and this is what I get...

4:30 Playtime. I try to change things up to keep Aiden (and myself) entertained. We play upstairs in the morning and then hit up our newly renovated basement in the afternoon/evening. He has a makeshift train table down there and his Thomas Power Wheel. Aiden usually requests to go see his "Choo Choo" after lunch. What a life he lives.

6:00 Family dinner. We try to eat around 6 since Aiden goes to bed at 7. This recipe is my new favorite and Aiden loves it too! You can see some of Aiden's other favorites here.

6:45 Bedtime routine begins. This may be my favorite part of the day. We brush his teeth, get his jammies on and then read books together.

Yes we are still wearing our Christmas jammies in February! 

We have an entire basket devoted just to bedtime books and Aiden definitely has his favorites that we have to read. I love this time of the night because we all three squeeze into one chair and read together for 15-20 minutes. We always end with Goodnight Moon then turn off the lights and I rock him to sleep. I cherish these moments.

7:20 It's ME time! Well actually that starts after I clean up from dinner, do 3 loads of laundry, prep food for the next day, etc. Haha. But it's amazing what you can accomplish baby free for a few hours.

So there you have it, a day in the life with a 15 month old.

See my other "Day in the life" posts below...

A day in the life with a 10 month old

A day in the life with a 6 month old

Have you ever done a post like this?

What does a day in your life look like?

A day in the life (with a 10 month old)

I did one of these posts back when Aiden was just 6 months old and thought it'd be fun to compare my days with Aiden and how they change as he gets older. So here it is another day in my life, but this time with an almost 10 month old!

4:30 AM Aiden is up and hungry. I bring him in bed with me, feed him then we snuggle/sleep for a little bit longer before we drag ourselves out of bed

6:45 AM I turn on PBS Kids and let Aiden watch his favorite shows (Thomas and Daniel Tiger) while I fix breakfast, eat breakfast and then clean up the kitchen. All while trying to keep Aiden from pulling the cats tails, eating the cats food, pulling any and every cord out of the wall and pulling over baskets. Haha. Then we play and read a few books.

9:00-ish AM Aiden takes his morning nap. Since Aiden isn't sleeping great these days I try to nap with him during his first nap of the day. If I don't take a nap with him then I'll read or check my emails on my phone while he sleeps in my arms. I just finished reading Where'd You Go Bernadette and loved it!

10:00 AM Time to get out of bed. I feed him then it's time to actually get ready for the day.

10:15 AM Bath time. Since Aiden no longer likes to be laying down in his baby bath tub I've been letting him sit in his Boppy seat in the tub. I bathe him then I shower. We usually jam to a Baby Pandora station I created and we have a good ole time splishing and splashing.

10:30 AM Time to get Aiden dressed/aka let him roll around and pull everything out of the diaper caddy as many times as possible in the time it takes to change and dress a baby.

10:45 AM Mid-morning snack. His current favorite breakfast is Oatmeal with a mix of pureed blueberries and cherries. Yum. He also likes scrambled eggs. It's so fun that he is eating real food and that we can share bites.

11:00 AM Aiden "helps" me pick out our meals for the week and make a grocery list.

11:30-1 PM Lunch and errands. We hit up the grocery store and visit Yaya at work on our way home.

1:30-4:30 PM Afternoon nap and then I feed Aiden again. Then I attempt to meal prep and pick up around the house if Aiden allows it.

5:00 PM Aiden's favorite time of the day! Daddy is home!

5:30 PM Family dinner (can you guess which drink belongs to which family member?)

6:15 PM We clean up the kitchen and then Drew entertains Aiden while I meal prep some baby food for the following day. I made a Lentil and Brown rice soup for Aiden. You can find the recipe here.

6:45 PM If we have time before Aiden's goes to bed we take a family stroll around the neighborhood or head up the street to our favorite park then it's time to change Aiden into his PJs, read him a few books, feed him and put him to bed.

8:00 PM Aiden's Bedtime

After Aiden goes to bed I check emails/blog, fold laundry, hang out with Drew and then read or watch a show in bed. Everyday is different, but this is a snapshot of a day at home with my little man. I cherish these days with him.

A day in the life (with a 6 month old)

The days are going by so quickly that I can't seem to keep up. Everyday Aiden is doing something new and I don't want to miss a thing. These days are so precious to me. I love this age and thought it'd be fun to do a day in our life so I can look back on it later and smile. So here's a typical Thursday in the Renner house...

4:30AM Aiden wakes up hungry. I go in and check on him and he always gives me a huge smile when I pick him up. I change his diaper, feed him then put him back to bed.

6:15AM Daddy leaves for work and Aiden comes in bed to snuggle with me. I work from home a few days a week, which I love. It means more snuggle time and not worrying about getting showered and being out of the house by a certain time! We sleep another hour then get up to start the day.

7:30AM I put Aiden in his Baby Einstein Jumper while I fix breakfast and work on a few things around the house. We watch some PBS Kids, I eat, feed him breakfast, pump then clean up the kitchen.

8:30AM After breakfast we head outside! It's been so nice out that we've started our days off with some front porch story time. Aiden loves being read to and is working on turning the pages by himself. Some of his current favorites are The Belly Button Book, Mr. Brown Can Moo and What's Wrong Little Pookie.

10:00AM It's nap time. Lately I find myself just wanting to hold him during at least one of his naps. Today was one of those days. He napped in my lap while I propped my feet up in the recliner in his nursery and finished reading a book. If you're curious, I finished The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and really enjoyed it.

11:30AM Aiden wakes up, I change his diaper and feed him. This kid still loves his changing table although he is liking his diaper being changed less and less. I read that this happens around 6 months. Uh oh. After Aiden is settled I'll put him in his bouncer in the bathroom while I shower. He's usually content until I start drying my hair then he's ready to move on to something else.

NOON If we had errands to run this would be the time of day I packed up the diaper bag and headed out to do that. I always try to leave the house when Aiden has a full belly. We might head to the grocery store, the park, to our play class at Kid's First or these days we've been frequenting Starbucks for their Half Price Frapps. Yum. Today we didn't have to go anywhere so we stayed put and back outside we went.

1:30PM Nap time again. This time I let Aiden nap in his crib and I get some work done. Aiden is such an inconsistent napper. People ask me his nap schedule and I say, he naps when he's tired. We are still on the BabyWise schedule of eat, play, sleep. He eats every 3 hours-ish so that's our day on repeat, but the length of his naps is ever changing. He always sleeps longer when he's in my arms though. That I do know.

2:30PM Another diaper change and time to eat again. I work a little more so Aiden hangs out in his swing, jumper or on his activity mat. He is usually easily entertained by one of these for a while!

4:00PM Daddy comes home! When Aiden sees his Daddy he lights up. If he's been quiet all day, he will see Drew and instantly come to life. It's the cutest thing ever. I hand Aiden over to Drew for a while and start dinner, throw in a load of laundry, clean bottles, check emails, etc. And while I may have made dinner today that's probably not an accurate picture of life these days around here, that is a rare occurrence, but I'm working on that.

5:30PM Aiden eats his dinner then we eat ours while he hangs out in his swing or sometimes on our laps. I love our little family dinners. This week we are starting solids so very soon Aiden will be joining us at the table in his high chair!

6:00PM Thursday nights we have Small Group. Usually Aiden comes along with us, but it's nice to have some uninterrupted adult time so we dropped Aiden off at my parent's house this time. He got to have some bonding time with his Uncle John while he was there too.

7:00 We head to our friends Andrea and Brandon's house for Small Group. It was a beautiful night so we sat outside and ate snacks while we talked. Right now we are doing a series called Brave that a few other churches in the area are doing also.

8:30PM We pick up our little guy from my parents and head home. Our nightly routine is me feeding him, Drew burping him and getting him ready for bed, I finish feeding him then pray over him and put him in his crib. If I'm tired I read in bed and fall asleep shortly after, otherwise I might have a glass of wine or some dessert, check emails, work on a blog post and watch a show with Drew, but our bedtime is always 10 or earlier. That's the life of new parents.

So there you have it. A day in my life. If you stuck through that whole thing, wow and thank you. I always enjoy getting a glimpse into someone else's life and know I won't remember these little details that make up my days with Aiden in a few years. I treasure this time!