A Day in the Life with a 3 Year Old (and 25 weeks pregnant)

Wow, we've had a busy winter so far! Emmett's birthday is December 11, so prep for having family come visit for that and hosting a 70 person park party was consuming (followed, of course, by Christmas). He LOVED his birthday this year (the cake, playing with his friends, and of course, presents).

My mom came for Christmas this year which was nice and gentle (except for a horrible cough E had been building up to that peaked Christmas eve. Gammy to the rescue with Vics vapor rub and a new humidifier. Did the trick - phew!) Later we spent a few days in San Antonio with Luke's family. It was super relaxing, and E always has a ball playing on their property.

E has been so fun to hang out with lately. Definitely some threenager tendancies people warn you about (so much why, no and major push back/control issues). But, he's so hilarious, and he's been REALLY lovey dovey lately (which might be due to the upcoming baby sister). Speaking of, one of his favorite Christmas gifts was a baby doll and stroller. We've been having fun taking her on walks to show her the hood, and E takes her everywhere (along with his longtime bestie, Monkey).

Finally, he's now in a big boy room with his new big boy bed! We found a cute trundle bed on Facebook Marketplace that needed a little love, so we painted in bright yellow. Emmett loves his sheets with cars, trucks, airplanes and helicopters.

7:30 a.m. Luke and I wake up and, shock of all shocks, we realize Emmett is still sleeping. Weird! He's usually up by 6:45/7. Luke capitalizes and jumps in the shower. A few minutes later we hear the garbage truck down the street and Luke sprints outside to take the cans out. Benji barks like mad which wakes Emmett up who runs down to say hi to our garbage man Sir Derek (and Benji gets out and runs around like mad for a minute.) I miss the insanity with a rare first-thing-in-the-morning shower.

7:50 a.m. I shuffle downstairs the the boys are making coffee, rinsing berries and picking out cereal. I had been craving pancakes, but due to the major sleep in we have an array of cereals, berries and nuts. I forgot to take a pic, but took one yesterday of Emmett scrambling eggs (one of his favorites!) and our bean/egg/avocado/cheese tacos. Yum!

8:15 a.m. We spent the next hour or so playing, getting dressed, cleaning up from breakfast, reading, coloring. Luke leaves for work around 8:30.

9:30 a.m. We hop in the car, snack cup of Goldfish in hand, and head to the YMCA for Emmett's first gymnastics class! We typically hike on Wednesdays, but cedar season has been particularly rough this year, and since I can't take the fun medicine due to pregnancy, I thought avoiding cedar-filled woods in January would be best.

10:00 a.m. We've checked in, removed shoes and wait for the teacher to arrive. Then, E gets nervous. Really nervous. He definitely has some anxiety in new situations where he won't know the other kids or teachers. The class is kind of a bust for him, he doesn't want to participate or engage with anyone. But, he does love playing on the equipment and I tried to keep an open dialogue with the teacher and have him watch what others were doing. He didn't want to leave at the end because he loved the equipment. So we will try again next week and I hope he'll get more comfortable. Sigh...

10:55 a.m. I let him tuck into some apple slices and we head towards the library to return books and pick out new ones. He's gotten way better at the library (no more ripping random books off the shelves). He goes to the table with magnetic puzzles and does some coloring while I pick a stack of books then flip through them to make sure they'll be Emmett-friendly.

11:30 a.m. I feel bad making him leave because he's enjoying himself, but I placed a to-go order from our new favorite Thai place so we could take lunch to Luke at work! To my delight, they let you pack a to-go salad bar box as part of the lunch special and have some epic looking dumplings and spring rolls on the bar - score!!

11:55 a.m. We arrive for lunch with dad! I'm starving and excited to eat. Unfortunately, my pad thai is a little spicy (normally Emmett likes to share with me), but he loves the dumplings and also has some banana and half a fig bar. Not exactly the lunch of champions but you win some, you lose some. Luke and I both polish off our food and some salad bar noms.

12:30 p.m. After a potty break, we hop in the car and go meet his bestie Max at the trampoline place. We wouldn't typically have a playdate this late, but since he slept in so late and we didn't go walk, I knew I'd need to burn some excess energy if he was going to take his normal nap. The jump dates are the best because the boys always have the place to themselves, run around like CRAZY, and we moms get to sit and chat.

1:50 p.m. We finally tear the boys away from the jumping place and head home. Luckily E accepts his cup of milk and we head upstairs to read books for nap time. After a tooth brushing and potty break, he goes down.

2:11 p.m. I head downstairs, grab a bag of peanut m&m's (current weakness along with blueberries) and start on this post. I respond to an email assignment from the Whole Foods blog team, and turn on an episode of Grace and Frankie (they're about to release a 4th season. I ignored it when the show came out, but my friend Meg recommended it and it's a hoot!). I also hop on Amazon to grab some gifts for some of my friends who have babies coming - fun shopping! :) I start feeling really tired so spend a few minutes with my eyes closed on the couch.

4:20 p.m. I don't want E's nap to cannibalize his sleep tonight, so I head upstairs to wake him up. He's all smiles and happy to see me. He asks to go downstairs to watch Daniel Tiger (duh) and I fix him a bowl of strawberries for a snack. He asks for seconds, then thirds (which I don't give into - need to make sure he'll eat dinner!). I lay with my eyes closed and also message a bit with my friend Christine in Tokyo.

5:15 p.m. I turn off the TV and convince him to potty and get dressed to go outside. We head to the garden to pick some greens, cilantro and radishes for dinner (it miraculously survived the multi day hard freeze without getting covered!). We play around in the backyard in the sand box, on the swing set and on the roller coaster ride my sister got him for his birthday.

5:55 p.m. I call Luke to see if he's coming home soon (he's usually home by 6 but he's busy this week) and he promises he's leaving soon. I run inside to season some salmon and get it started cooking, and I prep some veggies for the salad. Emmett wants to help with the salad so he whisks the dressing and tosses it together while I add ingredients. Spoiler alert, it was so good:

1 T honey
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 T EVOO
Salt and pepper to taste
4 oz greens (we did a mix of spinach and some sort of lettuce green from the garden)
1/2 large avocado, chopped
1 radish, sliced
1/4 cucumber, sliced
1/2 shallot, sliced

6:15 p.m. Luke is home! We sit down to salmon with rosemary and honey, rice and broccoli for E, salad for the grownups. The boys add fancy furikake Christine brought back for us from Tokyo to their rice. Emmett asks for seconds on salmon (the smaller piece on my plate) and eats most of his broccoli too. Nice! He usually has two servings of veggies in a day so I'm feeling guilty he really only had one today.

6:45 p.m. We call dinner quits and all clean up. E has been into helping with the dishes, so the boys clean dishes while I put food away. I'm feeling tired again so sit on the couch. They come keep me company and Emmett plays driver and pretends to take us places like the zoo.

7:20 p.m. We head upstairs to start bedtime. After a few minutes of playtime, E picks some toys and hops in the tub. He and Luke hang out while I grab his jammies and a few books to read, then cruise Overdrive for a new ebook to borrow from the library. Emmett runs to snuggle with me in bed and we get him jammied up, then read. Then the guys go to brush teeth and potty and we meet in Emmett's room to read a last book and say goodnight.

8:15 p.m. Luke and I chill out on the couch and watch an episode of Madame Secretary and then The Good Place.

9:25 p.m. We head upstairs to get ready for bed. I start a new book but feel wiped out and pass out by 10.