Routines..

Life is all about routines. If you have kids you know the importance of "the routine". The eating routine, the sleeping routine, the diapers routine. It never ends. Sometimes the word routine is used in a negative context, when someone is bored in life, and they have begun doing the same monotonous acts day in and day out. Some days I feel like that, yet some days I love knowing what to expect..I have just come to realize that pretty much everything in life is based off of some type of routine...whether you like it or not..Sometimes the days of the week start to blend together for me because they somehow are all crazily similar. I will give you a pretty similar play by play of a day in my shoes, or my flip flops for that matter....(this will probably be VERY boring for 99% of you to read..I wont be offended if you stop reading this very moment, and check back in tomorrow for something more interesting:)
*My day starts at about 6:30am.. Hayden wakes up hungry..( from this moment on, he eats about every 3 hours)..I feed him even though I'm still half asleep.. Kyla joins us within a half hour.. we giggle and tickle and play with the baby, until Kyla wants to watch Dora and eat blueberry waffles.
* Hayden is up for a little over an hour, then wants a catnap for about 45 minutes. Those 45 minutes are seriously very similar to some type of game show for me...like super market sweep or something, where you are being timed to fulfill a certain task within the allotted minutes, and what you don't finish is just lost:) I literally stand in the middle of the house and take a quick 360 around me and have to decide which is most important to be completed..the laundry..dishes..editing pictures on the computer..picking up toys..returning emails..rest??? ya right. rest. I never choose rest as my option, as much as I should.
*Once Hayden wakes up we play with Kyla and when baby doesn't mind being put down, I try to juggle playing with him, and to finish whatever it is that I chose to work on during his nap. I usually pace around the house and make phone calls, this is usually when my girlfriends or parents call to check in:)
*Once 11am comes around we start to anticipate daddy coming home. Even though he technically gets off at noon, he doesn't get home til closer to one..but we still get excited in case it's a day he comes home early.
*Once daddy gets home we make lunch..which is usually one of three things...sandwiches, soup, or on lucky days..burritos:) Kyla is stubborn, so her lunch is usually along the lines of macaroni and cheese, rice, toast and yogurt, or a quesadilla..that sits there for hours, cuz she never eats a quesadilla the first time its offered to her. Weird. Anyways..
*by this point in the day if I have not had coffee, I am starting to get a massive migraine..After I hang out with Jason for a bit, we put Ky Ky down for nap, Jason takes a nap..and Hayden and I usually do a coffee run and do errands I have any. (Sometimes Hayden naps right now for a few hours).This is normally the time in the day that I schedule appointments and photo shoots if I need to..
*Then come 5:00... Jason and I ask each other "what do you want for dinner" about 6 times. Serioulsy. Every night. We call it the "dreaded question", because we always go grocery shopping yet never feel like eating anything we have once dinner time comes. Neither of us EVER have a preference, so usually one of us starts to to get crabby because we are starving, and we finally choose something.( This is usually a 3 part equation..2 frozen items from the freezer from trader joes, and one boxed item from the pantry..from Target) and WHALA..dinner.
* After we do dinner, Jason and Kyla water the plants in the backyard and play a bit. Then we start getting Hayden and Jason ready for bed...funny I know. Jason has to be up for work at 2am so he actually goes to bed before the baby most nights...AWW so sweet:) Hayden usually wakes up at least 2 times before he stays asleep, so I try to get him to sleep before Jason does so they can both sleep peacefully:)
*From then on, its pretty much just night time routine for Kyla..bath...negotiate the terms of brushing her hair..choosing which "Jammas" she wants to wear..play with the puppy for a bit..eat a gogurt, pick the accommodations for her sleeping..(because there are SOO many). Top bunk or bottom? Big polka dot pillow or small striped pillow? Cabbage patch dolly or purple care bear? Rainbow comforter or fleece blanket? Fan on or fan off? The only thing that TRULY stays the same every night is these three things. 1.) Kisses. 2.)after kisses, the phrase we both repeat, which is "Best friend in the WHOLE world" and 3.) Kyla prays. Don't even dare try to pray..she will shut you down every time. Once Kyla learned how to pray that was just it for mommy and daddy trying. When she first learned how to pray, she used to say the funniest things..she would say "Dear Jesus..thank you for....and then she would list the most random things..what ever was on her mind ( or whoever she saw that day)..sometimes she would say "thank you for spongebob, squidword, crabby patties, Dora, boots, Diego, pancakes, Landon, daddy, string cheese, Nana, Donalds (McDonalds:) crocs, love you sooo much..AMEN. " But now her prayers at night time are the exact same, "Dear Jesus, thank you for our food, thank you for my friends, Love you SOOO much..Amen". Seriously at the end of the day, when I am soo tired.. hearing her pray is so cute, and makes me just breathe a little.

You can tell that tonight she was thrown off a little by the nigh time routine, because it was 9:00..Hayden was fussy all day from his shots, and being a little sick, that I couldn't get him to go to sleep for the life of me.. So instead of putting Kyla in bed, I told her to put on a dress and that we were going for a drive. You can tell she is pretty used to her routine at night, because she looked at me so weird and said.. "a DRESS? where are we going??" I said, we are going to drive to Starbucks cuz mommy wants Hayden to fall asleep in the car. She looked at me and said.."Starbucks..at NIGHT TIME??" yes Kyla, I said..hurry and get dressed"..(as Hayden was crying in his car seat)... So we got in the car with Calvin (the pup) and drove to the only drive through Starbucks in the area, which is the farthest Starbucks away, but would guarantee that the baby would fall asleep..and he did. After getting my chai, her apple juice box..and 3 bones for calvin..YES..bones!!...the girl and the window said that they had little bones for dogs as well. Is that normal??? I know they just ventured into offering smoothies last week, but dog bones too? Pretty soon I bet you will probably be able to get pizza and premium denim at Starbucks. You just wait:) Anyways, it was quite the adventure for Kyla..once we got home, I realized I told Jason I would water the plants in the backyard, so Kyla and I did that in the dark, which she thought was so funny. She kept telling me, "we don't water plants in the nigh time mommy..only daytime"..clearly..I was messing with post-dinner routine with daddy:) Once I tucked her into bed (on the top, with the striped pillow, purple carebear, fan on, and absolutely NO blankets)..I gave her a kiss, said we were each others best friend, then I turned for the door...All the sudden I heard her abruptly sit up in her creeky ikea blue bunk bed, and with a totally disappointed tone, she said.."ahh...you didn't let me pray!!" It was so priceless..she was genuinely frustrated with me that I had forgotten that very important detail.( she didn't care how tired I was:) Once she prayed and I closed her door, I couldn't help but realize that even though she is so free spirited and pretty much tries to do whatever she wants..she SO likes her little routine..
*And here I am..this is my routine once the family's asleep. Do I sleep or stay awake? To blog or not to blog? Work on photography or make a card? Sleep..wake up. Repeat. It's pretty safe to say that tomorrow will look alot like today. I don't really mind that too much however..some people hate doing the same thing everyday...I guess that really depends on the people and things that makeup their lives from morning til end. For me..adorable kids that want me to play with them all day long.. a fun husband who just wants to spend time with me...great phone calls from my family and friends..taking pictures..Cleaning, or just adding to the mess...all the while knowing I get to have all those things makeup all of my "tomorrows"....A girl can't complain:)