Monday In The Life

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written a day in the life post so I thought that I would capture my Monday with Finn this week. Typically, our nanny works from 9a until mid-afternoon on Mondays but I gave her the day off since a) I worked all weekend leading yoga teacher training at VIDA and b) she worked Sunday from noon until I got home around 8p. When it’s possible, I enjoy taking the day off or lightening up my workload on the Monday after a teacher training weekend. It’s nice to have a  day to rest, run errands, do things around the house, etc.

RISE AND SHINE

Finn stayed up late on Sunday and waited for me to get home from teacher training. When I arrived he was all about his cars and playing with mommy and not going to bed. I took him upstairs around 8:45p but he was a little too wound up. I ended up having to walk him back to bed 10+ times and he didn’t go to sleep until after 10p! Despite his late bedtime, he was up and ready to tackle the day around 7a on Monday morning. As much as I LOVE seeing Finn at the end of a long weekend away, I think I may try having his nanny put him down before I get home next time so he doesn’t get overstimulated at bedtime.

Our morning routine is always the same. Finn loves to “snuggle mommy” in my bed for about 30 minutes. I ask him if he’s ready to go downstairs and what he wants for breakfast and he just says, “no…I want to snuggle mommy.” It’s very sweet. Once I convince him that we should start the day, we head downstairs and I let the dogs out and feed them, make coffee and get a show going for Finn. Right now he’s loving Octonauts, Cocomelon, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, PJ Masks, Daniel Tiger and Thomas The Train.

Finn usually wants to start the morning with something like a bagel or a muffin, I let him eat it while he watches his show so that I can have a few minutes to drink my coffee and make breakfast. We usually share eggs or a smoothie later.

On this Monday, Finn had a banana muffin (we LOVE this recipe!) and I had pumpkin bread and I made each of us a plate of scrambled eggs. After we had our breakfast, I vacuumed and mopped the floors downstairs and straightened up a bit. I got Finn dressed for the day and hopped into the shower to get ready to go teach yoga.

YOGA TIME

I teach a yoga class at Charlotte Yoga on Monday mornings from 10:30-11:30. I’ve been subbing out my classes a lot lately so I didn’t want to miss this one. Since our nanny wasn’t working on this Monday, my friend and house sitter (she’s the one who always stays at my house with the dogs when I travel) came to hang out with Finn. They had a great time playing outside and I had a great and very sweaty class! We just started running the heat in the studio again at the beginning of the year and it’s been quite an adjustment to reacclimate to hot yoga…especially teaching and practicing in a mask!

A SLEEPY AFTERNOON

I got home around noon and Finn was so ready to go down for his nap after his late night and active morning. My friend and I were cracking up because he could barely hold his eyes open but kept saying “I don’t like nap.” We read three stories and he was out like a light. I showered, ate lunch and worked on this recent eats post while he napped. I had some crackers, a bowl of lemon chicken orzo soup and an apple with chocolate almond butter (this is the best chocolate almond butter ever) for lunch.

Finn slept for about 1.5 hours and woke up asking for a snack. He ate a bar and then we FaceTimed my mom and dad. Finn usually loves talking to them but he was having none of it. He was just resting his head on my chest the whole time and acting like he was still sleepy from his nap. I took him in the den to snuggle on the couch and he FELL BACK ASLEEP! I let him sleep on me for another 20 minutes or so. This never happens and I didn’t feel like he was getting sick so I guess he hadn’t really finished his nap.

AFTERNOON ADVENTURES

Next on the agenda was our weekly swim lesson! Finn does a 20-minute private at Charlotte Swim Academy. I really like the format of their lessons. They are all 20- or 30-minute privates where the kids are in the pool with the instructor and parents don’t have to get in. I think it was great for us to be in the pool with Finn for group lessons when he was little and getting comfortable with the water but once the goal was actually learning to swim, I think he learns much better from someone else and without me involved. He loves his swim lessons and they’re a highlight of our week! We are on our third session with CSA and I am very happy with everything!

I promised Finn that we could go to the car wash after swim lessons. It’s one of his favorite activities, haha, and my car was so dirty…full of crumbs and dog hair and also covered with that salt solution they put on the roads from my trip up to Tennessee. You stay in your car while it goes through the exterior wash and then get out to let the attendants do the interior. Finn asked to “hold my hand” while we were in the interior wash when all of the big washer things were beating on the car. Once we were out, he loved watching the other cars go through the wash. He also loved the vending machines in the waiting room and asked me I wanted a snack and which one did I like. He’s so dang cute.

We swung by ALDI on our way home to grab a few things and then came home to make dinner and get ready for bed.

WINDING DOWN 

Finn had buttered steamed rice, sautéed chicken sausage and gouda cheese slices. I had the same elements but plated differently. I made a bagged avocado ranch chopped salad and then topped it with the chicken sausage, rice, avocado and a drizzle of ranch and hot sauce. I squeezed lime juice over the top of everything. I really liked adding the rice to the dinner salad to bulk it up and I don’t usually use chicken sausage as a salad protein but it really worked here!

Finn watched a show for about 30 minutes and then we headed upstairs for our evening routine. It usually looks like….

• Dinner
• Show/snuggle
• Bath or shower…we skipped that on Monday. On swim days, he likes taking a shower in the dressing room after his lesson so I bring baby wash and lotion with me so that we’ve already knocked out his shower/bath for the night.
• Read books (usually three)
• Sing songs…we have quite the song routine going now. Finn almost always asks for the same songs in the same order. We do How Much Is That Doggy In The Window, Pat-A-Cake (twice, once with a J and once with an F at Finn’s request), Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle and You Are My Sunshine. During the holiday season we added a few Christmas songs to this list and he’s still asking for them! I usually end up singing Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Oh Christmas Tree and Deck The Halls before we start our normal song rotation. It’s quite the concert before bed!
• Tuck-in…after songs I ask Finn if he wants to get in bed himself or if he wants me to put him in bed and tuck him in. I tell him goodnight and that I love him and that I’ll check on him later. We were on a great streak where I never had to go back in after this but since Christmas, I have to walk him back to his room a few times every night. I’m trying to be consistent with it because I don’t want to get in a routine where I have to stay in there every night until he falls asleep.

MY TIME

After I put Finn to bed, I usually head to the couch to unwind before I go to bed. On Monday night I watched The Bachelor (I’m enjoying this season) and did some work on my laptop. I had to send my teacher trainees their weekend one recap and homework for our next meeting. I answered some emails and finished writing my recent eats post. Honestly, I don’t often bring my laptop to the couch at night these days (it used to be my norm) but I needed to catch up on a few things since I spent most of the day with Finn.

I also funded a scholarship for this 25-Hour Yoga + Social Justice Immersion that’s being led by Shanna Small. I am unable to attend because of many date and time conflicts with my parenting schedule and the 200-hour teacher training that I am leading at VIDA but I wanted to help make the opportunity possible for another yogi. If you’d like to read more about the training or register, you can find more information here. This felt like an actionable thing for me to do on MLK Day.

I shut it all down around 10:30 and went upstairs to go to bed. I worked a NY Times Crossword on my phone for a little bit to calm my brain off and then read my book for all of about two minutes before falling asleep. I am reading The Lost Girls of Devon.

And that’s a wrap friends! Thanks for reading and for being here. <3

QUESTIONS

Do you like “day-in-the-life” style posts? 

What does your evening routine look like with your little ones? 

I would LOVE to hear something cute or funny that your kids have said or done lately. 🙂