typical tuesday: Traci Monson

Hey all. Today's typical tuesday is a friend that I have actually known for a while, now that I think about. Traci remember when we were youth camp leaders in high school? So I knew Traci in high school, then we ended up being a few apartments down from each other in college for a semester or two, and now we are blog friends. Traci is funny, super-duper crafty/creative. She has two adorable little boys and a great husband. Take it away Traci!

Hello Playing House readers! My name is Traci and I'll be Rachel's guest blogger for today's Typical Tuesday. What a great blog idea! I love being able to read other's day-to-day life.

We are a family of four living in beautiful South Carolina. My husband works in industrial construction so we get to move around the country from jobsite to jobsite. This particular project has kept us in one spot for over a year, which has been such a blessing. While he's at work, I stay home and take care of our two boys. Kaden is 2 years and Colton is 2 months.

I'm never quite sure when my day starts. I wake up and nurse the baby about every 2-3 hours starting at 2:30am...but I don't go to sleep until around midnight. And this Tuesday morning it was raining so the frogs who live in our siding croaked all.night.long. Annoying.

So let's just start when the littlest guy says that it's time to stop sleeping and start playing. It was around 7:15am. I am greeted with precious smiles and adorable coos. What a great way to start the day.

After changing his diaper, nursing and playing I get to enjoy breakfast. My original plan was to have strawberries, vanilla yogurt and granola but we were out of vanilla yogurt. So I had my second favorite breakfast: Life Cinnamon cereal.

After eating breakfast, I put Colton in his bouncy chair and start cleaning things up. A few minutes later, Colton is out. Yes folks, he's that easy of a baby. Didn't have to do a thing. I think it was the man upstair's way of making up for the colic baby we had the first go-round.

Mommy sleeps when baby sleeps...unless you have a toddler. Almost as soon as I lay down to take a quick nap, Kaden wakes up. First thing he says is "I have to go pee-pee! Hurry mommy! I have to go pee-pee!" (He hates wearing diapers at night but isn't night-trained yet. We tell him that if he wakes up dry for 10 days straight, then he can wear undies to bed. He's fervently trying)

Then it's Kaden's turn for breakfast: banana with peanut butter, yogurt and cereal. He watches his new favorite obsession "Yo Gabba Gabba" on Netflix. 

After eating breakfast, nursing, playing and all the other good things that the morning brings, Colton is napping again and I decide it's time to make Kaden another tie shirt. He is in love with his other tie shirt and cries when it's dirty. So the solution is to make more shirts! He loved it!

Eventually Colton wakes up and is SUPER upset. He's been arching his back all morning so it has to be gas. It's tough being a newborn.

But after a few bicycle kicks and lots of tummy rubbing, we pushed that fluffer right out of him and he was as good as new.

It stopped raining and turned hot and muggy again. So Kaden knocked on our neighbor's door, asking if his friend could come out and play. They played in the pool while us mommy's sprayed them with hoses. It's the only way to escape the southern heat.

Normally after lunch, it's nap time. If I'm lucky, both kids nap at the same time so I can get some me-time in. But since Kaden slept in today, I figured it was best to just let him skip his nap and have an early bedtime. So we played. And played. And played.

The weather turned, once again, and it was pouring outside. Raining cats and dogs. Kaden stared out the window longingly. He loves playing in the rain.

A couple weeks ago, I took Kaden outside to play in the rain. We had galoshes on, used an umbrella and jumped in the puddles together. We had a blast. Kaden hasn't forgotten it since. He asked if he could play in the rain but since Colton was awake, I wasn't able to. So I let him run around right outside our house.

Then comes what seems like the longest stretch of time - waiting for daddy to come home. We just kinda hang out until that blessed time.

(He wanted a clothespin so he pulled the whole wall hanging down. Stinker)

5:30pm rolls around and my love is home! Usually Kaden runs right to daddy. But today, the neighbor was carrying a stack of pizzas into his home so Kaden darted for those instead...

As soon as daddy's home, I pass the kids off to him so that I can get ready real quick. I have a friend's 31 Gifts open house at a nice restaurant to go to and then I have an activity at the church. So I get my hair all did and my face on. 6pm and I'm finally ready for the day. The life as a mom!

I'm on my way out the door when I realize that I forgot to pull the banana bread out the oven. Whoops! It wasn't burnt too bad thankfully.

In my whirlwind to get myself out the door, I forgot to grab my camera. So no pictures for this part, sorry. I went to the open house and dined on appetizers and talked with a good friend. Afterwards, I headed to the church for mutual. I work with the youth in our church and we have an activity every Tuesday night for them. Shortly after arriving at the church, I run home to nurse the baby (who was not wanting to take a bottle) and then rushed back to the church to finish up the activity. It's a good thing we live only a minute down the road from the church. 

I get home just in time to help daddy put the kids to bed. Kaden is screaming about not wanting his diaper so I tell him that I will make him special underwear for bed. So now I have to make cloth trainers, which will save us money anyways. Once Kaden is in his room, we say our good nights to Colton, who is far too cute to put to bed...

By this time it is 9:30pm and there is still a million things I could do. Clean the dishes, make those promised special underwear, do some laundry, blog, create a shopping list, reupholster our headboard. But I am beat. So instead I sit next to my love and we just chill together. We chat about our day and he watches something on the Military Channel while I get my Facebook on.

I hope you all enjoyed reading my typical Tuesday! Thanks for having me Rachel!

Thank YOU Traci!
Check out Traci's blog HERE.
I am in need of people doing a typical tuesdays, no pressure,  but come on, you know you want to!
Just email me, k?