motherhood these days

I love looking back on blog posts from when Cooper was a little baby. It's like a snapshot of motherhood in that exact moment, and since it changes so fast I want to remember each stage. 

This is what motherhood looks like at this very moment...

Mornings start at about 8:00am. Some days I "sleep in" and wake up when they do. Other days I'm able to do a bit of hair and makeup, get dressed, and get downstairs to make bottles and prep snacks for the day. When it's a barre day we are out of the house for 8:50am with two bottles, two snacks, two babies, two pairs of shoes, and a water bottle. The kiddos are SO good in the car and they absolutely love the child care room and all of the attention they're about to get. 

Both little ones go in the stroller and up the elevator. Cooper walks once I park the stroller, but Jilly is still either in her bucket seat or in my arms. 

After class, Jilly passes out immediately. Most days I can keep Cooper awake in the car until we get home. If I can't, it simply means he'll have a shorter afternoon nap. When we get home, parked, and unloaded, Jilly eats a bottle, Cooper gets a snack, and we watch some SuperWhy! or Curious George. I can usually sneak away at some point while they're snuggling on the couch and answer some emails or prepare a blog post. 

Around 12:30pm is nap time. The double baby nap is the goal for every single day, and I'm happy to say that we get it about 95% of the time. Both little ones in their cribs, time to DO STUFF. Load of laundry, unload the dishwasher (thank goodness my little ones don't mind loud noises while they sleep!), tidy up the living room, answer some more emails, shower, download the latest episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, lay on the couch with my phone and zone out for an hour, realize nap time is probably coming to an end, eat lunch, and plan what we're going to do for the next few hours before Dad gets home. 

Jilly is usually awake first. She loves to sit on her playmat with toys while I work. When she gets tired of that she goes in her jumper, sits on my lap, or has a bottle. This little lady eats a lot! 

When Cooper gets up he immediately runs to whichever toy he has been thinking about the whole time he was in his crib. These days it's either the football, the baseball, or this book of stickers he loves. 

Logistically it's getting easier and easier. Cooper can run inside the house when I unhook him from his carseat. Jilly is still happy to be in her bucket, and although it's heavy, it makes everything super easy. When we grocery shop, Coop sits in the cart and Jilly's bucket sits beside him in the top basket. All of the groceries go in the bottom (which is perfect because they're safe from Cooper's reach.) 

Most activities, though, are done on Cooper's school days. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are my days with just Jilly. We can go out and grab a coffee with a friend after barre class, we can leisurely grocery shop without and meltdowns or whining, and she always has really good naps when it's a little quieter in the house. I get lots of work done and tidy up any toy messes made by Cooper the day before. She loves to be in the car so sometimes we just go for a drive :) 

Today is a two-kid day. I am sitting upstairs typing this post while Jilly hangs out on the couch below, ferris-wheel toy in hand. It sings this really annoying song, "the animals are enjoying their riiiiiiiiide," but she seems to love it. No one is really watching the episode of Fixer Upper that's playing. Cooper has just found one of the baseballs I bought for his birthday party, so every 10-15 seconds I hear a big bang of him throwing the ball in the space between the dining room and the living room. 

Weezy likes to see everything that's going on so he sits by the railing and watches over the little ones. 

In general, there are very few lose-my-mind moments in motherhood these days. Both kiddos seem to be in a really happy stage and Cooper is still responding well to his "alone time" time-outs. Work isn't busy, but I still have a few things to tinker away at. It gives me enough of a mommy-break so that I can spend some quality time with them. 

One day this will all seem very far away. The ferris wheel toy will be replaced with dolls and who knows what show will replace Curious George... This is today, and today is pretty darn good.