A Day In My Life… With Two Toddlers

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I’m at stay-at-home mom with two toddlers – Carter is 3.5 and Mackenzie is 1.5 years old.  I feel so lucky and grateful to spend every day with my little ones and watch them grow and learn. But I’m not going to lie, life with two toddlers is pretty much the definition of chaos. Wonderful, fun, heart-warming and hilarious chaos. I love them to pieces, but every mother out there knows it wouldn’t be a normal day if there weren’t multiple moments where I’m ready to pull out my hair.

I always find it interesting to see how people spend their days and how my days differ. Plus I’ll be the first to admit, life with two little ones is pretty comical. Here is a day in my life with two toddlers…..can you relate? 

6:42 am: My alarm clock starts chirping at me. And by alarm clock, I mean my son. I haven’t set an alarm clock in ages except for the miscellaneous early morning flight or appointment. On this particular morning, Carter immediately asks to watch Paw Patrol. I tell him no, just like I do every single morning.

6:43 am: I dust the cobwebs off my eyes and realize what time it is. I ask my son to go back to bed since his “green light clock” hasn’t gone off yet. You know, the clock he ignores every single morning. He leaves my room and gives me hope that I might be able to snag a few more precious minutes of sleep.

6:44 am: I hear my son opening the fridge and talking to himself about milk. We typically leave a sippy cup full of milk at a kid-friendly level so he can help himself when he wakes up in the morning. Within seconds, I hear a pint of blueberries crash to the ground. Lovely. I don’t recall my alarm clock requiring me to clean-up in between snoozes prior to having kids.

6:51 am: After I clean-up the blueberries and Carter claims his milk, we both decide to climb back in bed with my husband who is still sleeping soundly. Obviously. After waking up dad, the three of us snuggle, talk about our upcoming day and quickly forget about the blueberry incident minutes earlier.  (If only this moment would never end!)

6:52 am: His sippy cup of milk starts leaking on our duvet cover. I truly don’t understand why all sippy cups leak. I make a mental note to require my kids to drink milk at the table going forward. I remove the milk sheets and start my first load of laundry of the day.

7:10 am: I make an attempt to get ready for the day since I still have one kid sleeping soundly in her crib upstairs. I put on my mom uniform: leggings, workout tank and tennis shoes.

7:20 am: Carter is busy at work with Legos at my kitchen island. I ask him what he wants for breakfast and he quickly replies, “fruit snacks”. I’ve never given him fruit snacks for breakfast, but this doesn’t stop him from asking every single morning. After some back and forth, we settle on fruit and yogurt while he continues to build a Lego tower.

7:37 am: I hear my daughter wake up through her monitor. As I walk through the kitchen, I promptly step on a Lego. I avoid screaming expletives by making a threat to throw away all future Legos I find on the floor. Knowing I’m upset, my son gives me a hug and says he is sorry while quickly grabbing his precious colorful block before I can place it in the garbage can.

7:40 am: Carter loves “helping” me get Mackenzie ready to go for the day and races upstairs. I follow behind and find the two of them inside her crib laughing, hugging and smiling. I sit and watch, feeling happy since they love each other so much, but soon Carter starts crying since Mackenzie just kicked him in the face. I remind him that he is in her crib and to avoid putting his face on her foot.

7:45 am: I get both kids dressed and we decide to sit down and read a few books. The kids fight over which book to read. So much for loving each other.

8:00 am: We head back downstairs. I give Mackenzie milk and attempt to encourage Carter to finish his breakfast. Kenzie immediately drops her sippy cup and milk goes everywhere. So much spilled milk. I make a mental note to look on Amazon for new sippy cups.

8:05 am: I give Mackenzie yogurt and a spoon and let her attempt to feed herself, even though her 18 month old spoon skills don’t exactly feature perfect spoon to mouth precision. At least it buys me a few minute to finish getting myself ready for the day and pack up my diaper bag with a bunch of snacks. Because snacks are pretty much the only way I survive outside of my house with two small kids.

8:17 am: I notice Mackenzie is wiping yogurt in her hair. No time for a bath so a wet paper towel will have to work. Hopefully a hair bow will hide the yogurt crusties that will inevitably be there when it dries.

8:33 am: Mackenzie dumps out every single fake food item out of our play kitchen. I want to cry looking at the hundreds of fruits and vegetables rolling around my floor. No time to clean it up if I want to get Carter to school on time.

8:45 am: We head out the door and I strap the kids into their car seats. I only have to go back inside three times to grab things I forgot.

9:05 am: I pull into the preschool parking lot and quickly realize I forgot it was t-shirt day at preschool. Mom fail. As soon as Carter sees other kids in their school shirts, he starts whining and begging for me to run home quick and get his. I explain we don’t have enough time and he can wear his the next time he comes to school. He accepts it, but I know I’ll hear about it again later.

9:30 am: Mackenzie and I head over to Desert Ridge Marketplace to attend my daily Fit4Mom/Stroller Strides workout class. I love having my kids with me to observe first-hand how fitness can be fun. Mackenzie says, “I want more nack, mommy”. I give her a snack.

9:35 am: Mackenzie says, “I want more nack, mommy.” I explain she still has the snack I gave her three minutes prior. She doesn’t care because she wants a better snack. I do my best to open another snack while simultaneously doing squats. Mom multitasking. This continues throughout the workout.

10:15 am: I have to leave my workout 15 minutes early for Mackenzie’s gymnastics class. I figure a 45 minute workout is better than not going at all.

10:30 am: Mackenzie and I arrive at her toddler Xtreme Gymnastics class. This is my weekly attempt to do a one-on-one kid class with my second born. She is totally getting the shaft compared to all the stuff I did with her big brother when he was an only child.

10:45 am: The entire gymnastics class is over by the trampolines and bars. Mackenzie is in the foam pit by herself. I let her be since she is happy. We have plenty of years ahead of us for her to follow directions.

11:15 am: Gymnastics is over and Mackenzie claims her weekly sticker on her hand. She is so proud of her sticker. I’m so happy we have a few minutes alone together.

11:20 am: We stop at Trader Joe’s and grab a few things. No matter how much I plan ahead with meals, there is always something I need at the store. Mackenzie says, “I want more nack, mommy”. I try to distract her since I don’t want to spoil her lunch. It doesn’t work so I give her more snacks.

11:45 am: We pick up Carter from preschool and he proudly shows me a jagged piece of paper which was used for cutting practice. I absolutely love seeing his adorable smile every time he learns something new. We drive home and he tells me about his day at school.

12:15 pm: We arrive home and I heat up some lunch for the kids. Mackenzie promptly throws her grilled chicken on the floor and my dog rushes over to clean it up. I can’t imagine the mess we would have after every meal without our dog. That reminds me, I never fed the dog this morning. Clearly the dog isn’t starving since my kids inadvertently feed her three times a day.

12:20 pm: Carter asks for BBQ sauce. I assume this is for his chicken and I give him some. He starts dipping his carrots in BBQ sauce. I am disgusted, but don’t stop him since he is eating vegetables. Mom win.

12:25 pm: Mackenzie starts asking for a “nana”. I peel the banana and hand the fruit to her. She screams and keeps yelling, “nannnnnnnaaaaa” since she wants to eat it with the peel on. I give up and open a second banana and give it to her with the peel attached. She happily eats it and I end up eating the first banana she refused. I also shovel a sad attempt at lunch down my throat quickly before I eat my arm.

12:40 pm: I change Kenzie’s diaper and notice we have a blowout situation going on. Great. Time to start my second load of laundry for the day.

12:50 pm: Carter asks to watch Paw Patrol. I explain it is nap time. I convince both kids to go upstairs and put Mackenzie down in her crib. She grabs her pacifier and goes right to sleep. I’m so grateful one of my kids is a good sleeper.

1:00 pm: I hop in the shower and enjoy my first moment of peace and quiet that day.

1:03 pm: I hear Carter come into my bathroom. So much for peace and quiet. I ask him why he isn’t in bed and he says, “because my pillow is hot”. This is his way of saying he wants his pillow fluffed. Ugh. I finish my shower as quickly as possible, throw on some more mom clothes and head back upstairs with my son. I flip over his pillow and make a threat about no Paw Patrol ever again in life if he doesn’t nap today.

1:05 pm: I nervously sit and watch my video monitor for the 10 minutes, praying he gives up and goes to sleep. At least I’m sitting since it is the first time I’ve sat down all day. I then bang out a quick blog post on my personal blog, The Sensible Shopaholic, since there is a big Nordstrom sale going on that day. I do my best to resist buying something.

2:00 pm: I clean up the kitchen and unload the dishwasher from the night before. As I line the sippy cups up on my drying rack, I wonder why sippy cup manufacturers can’t make a sippy cup that comes out of the dishwasher dry.

2:18 pm: I fold the laundry from the morning load and start another load of actual clothes and towels. Will the laundry ever end?

2:22 pm: Carter comes back downstairs. No matter how long the nap is, it is never long enough for me to get caught up. An hour definitely wasn’t long enough, but it is better than no nap at all. He sweetly sits down on the couch and asks for a hug. He then asks for Paw Patrol. I fully realize the hug was his way of sucking up, but I give in and turn on the TV for a few minutes since he caught me at a weak moment.

2:25 pm: I realize I forgot to start the crock pot. Crap. I throw in the ingredients and turn it on high, praying dinner doesn’t taste like rubber.

2:50 pm: Carter asks to play with Play-Doh. I agree even though I know it is always a mess. He starts smooshing the dough and I overhear him singing “Hotline Bling”. I can’t help but laugh when he keeps saying “call me on my cell phone”. Thankfully, he has never asked for a phone and doesn’t understand the concept of the song.

3:30 pm: Mackenzie wakes up and we all go upstairs to grab her and read more books. She then asks for “more nack, mommy”. She would live off snacks if I’d let her. We go downstairs and have a snack.

3:50 pm: Carter then suggests going outside to play, which sounds great to me minus the sunscreen I have to slather all over them. Only one kid cries when I accidentally get sunscreen in an eye. Oops. We spend an hour outside playing ball, blowing bubbles and racing each other. No one requires a Band-Aid during this particular play time so I call it the highlight of the day.

5:05 pm: Both my kids have milk meltdowns. Every single day at 5:00 pm, like clockwork, they lose it because they start to get hungry. I give them milk to hold them over till dinner before I have a mommy meltdown as a result of their whining.

6:00 pm: My husband gets home and the kids race to the door to greet him. We sit down and attempt to eat a family dinner. Attempt is the key word here since between constant requests from the kids and Carter getting out of his seat, I’m not sure all four of us were at the table at the same time. I can’t tell if the kids or the dog ate more food, but everyone seems full and happy.

6:25 pm: The big clean-up begins between toys and dishes. The kids “help” to the best of their ability, pulling out new toys as they put others away. There are still approximately a hundred pieces of fake fruits and vegetables rolling around the floor.

6:45 pm: Our entire family goes outside for our nightly dog walk. The kids sit in the double stroller and we all talk about our days together. We turn around half-way through and retrace our steps because Mackenzie lost a shoe. We find it about 50 feet from our front door.

7:15 pm: It is bath time. Both kids climb in at the same time, which is great for efficiency. Mackenzie dumps an entire cup full of water on the bathroom floor. At least they exit the tub a lot cleaner than they started.

7:35 pm: We attempt to brush their teeth while they squirm all over the place. I realize it will be a very, very long time before they will be able to handle this task on their own.

7:40 pm: My husband reads Mackenzie another book and puts her down to sleep while Carter and I go play with his Thomas trains for a few extra minutes.

8:05 pm: We read a few books then lights out to talk for a few minutes. I ask Carter about his favorite thing he did that day. He says playing outside. I ask him if anything made him sad. He says, “when mom forgot it was t-shirt day at school”. I knew he wouldn’t forget. As I’m leaving his room, he says, “love you, mommy”. My heart is happy. I tell him to stay in bed till the green light tomorrow morning, fully knowing it won’t happen.

8:15 pm: I walk downstairs and observe a few lingering dishes on the counter, toys on the floor, and laundry that needs to be folded. I sit down for a second, debating if I have the energy to take care of it all.

8:16 pm: Good thing I didn’t get too comfortable because Carter comes back downstairs telling me his pillow is hot again. After the final pillow fluffing of the night, I declare myself completely exhausted. I sink into the couch for the rest of the night and turn on some mind-numbing TV. I deserve it.

Do your days with your little kiddos resemble mine? Can anyone relate to the happy, hilarious and hair-pulling moments?