A Day in the Life of Brooklynn

I decided to do a documentary-style blog about the normal, routine and mundane things we do every day as a record to see how much it changes over the years...and for my Mom who loves details.
First we wake up. Brooke still wakes up sometime during the night (usually around 5 am but lately it's been more frequent. I think she's going through a growth spurt, she's gotten 2 1/2 inches longer this week). I'm too tired to feed her in her room or even think about getting up a second time so after the first time she wakes up I bring her in our bed, feed her (usually I sleep during this) and then I wake up when she's done and lay her between us.

She then wakes up around 7 am; usually like clockwork and Josh takes her out with her to play while he gets ready for work. I have no idea what all they do because Josh lets me sleep in a little bit until he goes to work. Actually lately until he has to shower because she is into everything so we can't even leave her alone for that time anymore.


So I usually wake up around 8:20 when Josh leaves and Brooke is still playing. I attempt to make breakfast for myself and Brooklynn. I try to eat while she is still playing. Otherwise she keeps me so busy that sometimes I will go until about 3 before I realize..."HEY! I'm hungry! Why haven't I had lunch yet?" So I try and make sure I eat or else everyone suffers. Sometimes she sees me eating and wants to eat to so I give her some cheerios to nibble on and to keep her busy.


After breakfast we get dressed. Usually because after breakfast even though it might be something as simple as Cheerios Brooke still manages to make a complete mess out of herself.

Next we do Brooke's hair. We can't go very far into our day without doing Brooke's hair, mainly because it's so long that she can't really see anything. I feel so bad for her when it's down and she kinda blows it out of her eyes. Or rubs it. Poor thing. I really don't want to give her bangs so I try and keep up on styling it out of her eyes.






By this time we play in her room for a little bit. Sometimes I'll put a little of her laundry away or tidy up. It's hard to pick up in her room because when I clean she is usually asleep so I have to do a little at a time and keep up on it.
Then I nurse her and she usually falls asleep by 9:30 and sleeps for an hour or two hours.

After Brooke's nap Brooke sits and plays in the kitchen while I clean up the kitchen a little. (Dishes from breakfast, and who are we kidding...usually dishes from dinner the night before as well) She keeps herself pretty busy, but she whines up a storm if I try and leave her just a few feet out of the way in the living room. She has to be able to see me or she yells at me. Luckily she has great fun in the kitchen. I have a bowl of "toys" for her that she loves to play with in the kitchen. I think she is helping me cook or clean. then depending on how well she is doing or what we're having for dinner I'll start putting something together for dinner (like mixing up stuff for a meatloaf, or cooking the chicken or whatever it is...any food-type prep I can do in the morning.)

Josh comes home at about 12:05 for lunch! Brooke is always very excited to see her Daddy. I love that he works so close to home and can have that extra hour with her during the day every day. (except if we're gone.)
I usually give Brooke her lunch then because one of us is eating. When that happens she usually tries to eat off our plates like a little puppy so to avoid this I give her her own lunch. Sometimes I'll wait to feed Brooke until after Josh leaves. Sometimes he watches her and I will shower or have a little ME time while he's home. This is generally why sometimes I forget to eat lunch.

I try to get out with Brooke after lunch in the afternoons. Sometimes we go for a walk, sometimes we go to the store. Just to get out of the house. Brooke doesn't care where we go, but it's fun for her to have a change of scenery. (And for me, too.) Wherever we go, I pretty much always have her in one of my slings. I love the bonding time. It's getting really hard to hold her without one of those because she is so active and squirmy. She does great in the sling, though. Sometimes if we're at the store she will take her entire nap in the sling and then I can have a leisurely time to find stuff that I have coupons for and walk around. It's not that exciting but I love that I'm holding my baby close but I can also kind of ignore her and have some time for myself. It's the essence of what I crave these days. I love the bonding time, but I also just want a break. When she is sleeping in one of the wraps I get the best of both worlds.

Brooke takes about a 2-3 hour afternoon nap. If we're home I usually check my email, Facebook, maybe blog a little, do some cleaning, pay bills online, sometimes I'll take a nap if I'm extra tired. It's great. I hardly ever feel very relaxed, though because I try to cram an entire days worth of activities into a couple hours of time...Then before you know it she is awake. By then I really miss her and am really excited she is awake.
Then we play together until Josh gets home from work. Brooke LOVES to be under this chair. She can tip it over quite easily now. It makes me really nervous. So even though she's entertaining herself, I still have to supervise. She sure is cute.





Josh gets home at about 5:15. We are both really excited to see Josh. Usually they play together or will go on a walk while I get dinner together.
Then we all eat dinner. Brooke usually has the same thing that we have, just in really small pieces or ground up. She'll only let us feed her about 3 bites but she does pretty good feeding herself. Actually she spits a lot of it out but at least it keeps her busy and Josh and I can have a pretty quiet dinner together with Brooke sitting with us.
And she usually makes QUITE the mess of herself. It is a small price to pay for letting her keep busy. It takes forever to feed her anyway because she fights us so much, so I much prefer letting her stay happy and just play with all of her food. She eats more of it that way, anyway.

We almost always have to give her a bath after dinner. Sometimes we can wipe enough of it off but she definitely needs a bath at least every other day. She loves the bath, anyway. As you can tell from these pictures.


Josh usually dries her off and puts lotion on her.

After that is pajama time. Pajama time is a big deal in our house. First we have actual pajama time when we put on pajamas, but then we read the book, Pajama Time! together. Even Brooke is starting to say, "Pajama Time" (kindof) a little bit.




After we read our book Josh stays in there and either tells her a story or will read her a story, usually a Bible story. While he does this she is having her bedtime feeding and we all like Josh in there so he can be part of the whole bedtime ritual. We started doing this when she was a newborn, mostly so she could hear his voice and so she would stay awake long enough to feed, but also to tell other feedings apart so she would know it was bedtime. Sometimes on a Friday or Saturday night I will let her "stay up late" after this and she will sleep out with us while we watch a movie or something. But mostly she is in bed by 8:30 or 9:00 and generally sleeps until 5. (which puts you back to the beginning of this blog.)