little one

I always think its interesting to read about the little parts of daily life of other bloggers and moms, so I took the time to capture what a normal day looks like for us in our house. Here’s a peek into a fairly normal every day at our home:

MORNING::
6:30 am – I wake up as Ben leaves for work and try to convince myself to stay in bed a while longer. But I like to have some quiet time with my Bible and prayer before Ayla gets up, so I get out of bed, wash my face, put on moisturizer, make a cup of tea, and spend the next thirty minutes reading, praying, journaling, and listening to worship music.

7:10 am – I finish my morning time and get some breakfast:: buckwheat pancakes from the freezer with apple compote and yogurt, and coffee of course. Ayla starts chattering and sing-songing in her crib once I sit down to eat, but most mornings she likes to do that for fifteen to twenty minutes before she’s ready to get up.

7:30 – Ayla starts making her ready-to-get-out-of-bed noises, so I go upstairs to get her up for the day. We have a few snuggles, I open the blinds and talk about the beautiful day, and then change her diaper before going downstairs. She’s always more than ready to eat when she gets up, so I nurse her right away. After she’s done nursing, I give her a second-breakfast of solid foods. She eats half of a buckwheat pancake and almost an entire egg. This was the first time I made an egg for her, and I wasn’t sure how she would take it. But she ate it like a champ! Once she’s full, I sit down on the floor with her in the living room and read a few chapters of the Bible to her. She’s busy playing with her toys and books, but I still love reading to her and I believe the words of the Word will impact her heart even at this young age.

9:00 am – Ayla goes down for a morning nap, and I take a little thirty minute walk on the treadmill while watching Food Network. It’s a cold, blustery day so no neighborhood walk outside for us today! I work on house chores, do some laundry, and bake some muffins during her nap as well.

11:00 am – Ayla wakes up and we repeat our wake-up routine: snuggles, open the blinds, change diaper. She’s hungry for her lunch nursing early today so I sit down to nurse her soon after she gets up, and then give her solids soon after for a second-lunch. Once she’s finished eating, it’s lunch time for me. Ayla plays with her basket of toys in the living room while I eat.

AFTERNOON::
12:45 pm – By the time I’m done with lunch and getting the kitchen back in order, Ayla is acting ready for a second nap. I take her upstairs to her room and lay her down while she smiles and giggles at being back in her crib. Seriously, girl LOVES her crib. I tuck her blanket and teddy bears around her and she pops her thumb in her mouth to head off to sleep. I sweep the floors and pick up all the miscellaneous things laying around the floor and work on some computer stuff while she’s napping for the afternoon.

2:00 pm – Ayla finally wakes up! It’s a good day for napping, apparently. We do our wake-up routine and go downstairs to play with toys.

3:00 pm – I’m feeling snacky, so I make some banana ice cream topped with a chocolate sauce made from coconut oil. Ayla and I sit on the living room floor and share our banana bowl and watch a little Food Network together. After our snack is finished, I grab my camera and shoot some photos for an upcoming collaboration…the afternoon lighting is perfect so I have to catch it while it’s there.

4:00 pm – I start batch cooking some soup to keep in the freezer. Ayla plays at my feet in the kitchen for a while before starting to fuss. She often needs a short nap or crib-time at this time of day, so I put her down. She doesn’t seem to want to settle down, so I get her back up after a few minutes. She doesn’t want to play and nothing else entertains her, so I give up on the cooking and sit on the living room floor with her to try to keep her occupied.

5:00 pm – Ben gets home! We all sit and snuggle on the floor for a while.

EVENING::
5:30 pm – We usually eat dinner around this time, and tonight it’s leftover burrito bowls from the night before. I always make enough of this meal to last us for several leftovers, and if anything, it’s tastier the next day. I set everything out on the counter and we make our plates. We dance around to some music to make Ayla laugh while we fix our dinner, and I warm up some green lentils and mash some avocado with salt for Ayla’s supper.

6:30 pm – Bath time for Ayla! Our normal routine is Ben giving her a bath while I clean up the supper dishes. I put together a pan of blondie brownies while they are playing and laughing from the bathroom and it just makes my heart so happy to hear them having such a fun time together.

7:00 pm – By seven o’clock, Ayla is usually ready for sleep. I give her the last nursing of the day, we say Psalm 23 to her, and take her up to bed. As usual, she’s smiling and wiggling with excitement when we put her into her crib. We give her a few more kisses and good-nights and she’s off to sleep.

8:00 pm – We get showered and comfy, and have a Friday-night date night in with a movie and snacks.

10:00 pm – We’re old so it’s lights out for us by ten o’clock, even on a Friday night, hehe.

What about you: what’s something that happens as a routine in your every day?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

We are having so much fun with our baby girl these days. Like, literally every day seems more fun than the one before. She’s now almost ten months, which is crazy because that means in only two short months, she’ll have her first birthday! Ben and I get sucked into what we call the “Ayla hole” all the time, which basically means we sit down in the evenings before bed and pull up photos and videos on our phone and end up scrolling/watching them for like half an hour. Tell me we’re not the only ones who do that, hehe!

Here’s just a few things that I never want to forget:

the little “uh!” exclamation she does whenever something falls on the floor from her high chair tray or when she’s sitting on our laps…and then she leans over and stares at it, seeming to attempt to will it back into her hands.
the way she wraps her little arms around my neck and buries her head into my shoulder
how she loves getting into her crib for naps and nighttime…like literally laughing and wiggling all over when you lay her down to sleep
the chatters and squeals and funny noises that she does all day long
the way she bobs her head to music and loves to jump up and down in our arms during worship at church
the way her eyes light up when Ben comes home from work and gives her hugs and kisses
the funny little motor sound she makes as she takes her little finger and pushes a toy or food crumb around on the table
the way she makes her toes all pointy when she’s starting to get frustrated with something
how she sits on the bathroom floor when I get ready in the morning and thinks the eyelash curling and teeth brushing are the funniest things