Our Daily Schedule + Life Lately

Recently I answered some questions on Samantha Elizabeth blog about how I balance motherhood, blogging, me-time, and staying organized.

You can read the entire post here, but in that post, I shared a breakdown of what a typical day looks like for us, broken down by the hour.

In general, I would say I am more of a person of routine than a strict follower of a specifically-timed schedule. This became clear when Ryan was a baby and I attempted (very briefly) to follow the Moms on Call schedule for newborns and completely stressed myself and Ryan out trying to follow someone else's set times on when to feed and change and put my baby down for a nap. So it lasted for maybe two days. 

Funny story- at one point, our pediatrician breezed over how Ryan should be eating 4 times a day like it was a no-brainer and something all babies and moms were obviously doing, so I refrained from sharing that he much preferred the 12 times/day eating routine. 😳😂

Ironically, Natalie loved her sleep and loved spreading out her feeds, so she took to a schedule and fewer feeds quite nicely.

This is why I took no credit whenever people complimented me for doing such a great job with Natalie's sleep routine early on and "getting" her to sleep through the night before she was 3 months old. Girlfriend just liked her sleep. And her brother just liked his mama. 😉

Point being, I am someone who likes to find what works best for me and my little family and love pulling suggestions from other places, but will never be one of those people who sticks to a strict to-the-minute schedule when raising babies because it just causes me more stress than enjoyment. (And if I can get a baby to fall asleep on me and stay there for a bit, believe you me, I'm gonna.)

I always like seeing a breakdown of what other people's days look like, particularly people who stay at home with small kids, so if that sort of thing interests you too, here's what our schedule for the day usually looks like:

That about sums up our day-to-day in this stage of life! You can read more about my daily check-off lists and other parts of how I balance mom-life with life-life in the post I wrote for Samantha Elizabeth Blog (post found here).


And now here's a look at what we've been up to lately!

It has been cold more often than not here in Atlanta so we've mostly been sticking to indoor activities. This day we were checking out the Lego store at NorthPoint mall. Natalie was building up all kinds of immunities as she much prefers eating the blocks over building with them. :/

Little clapper :)

Ryan loves to "hide" on our walks. Please stay little forever.

We had my family over for Papa's birthday recently and I snapped this picture of my view from the kitchen because I couldn't help but be so thankful that we have space for messes like these now! It's fun to cook in the kitchen and still be able to see all of the fun that's happening in the living room. When our furniture arrives, I'll be a little sad that my view won't be quite as open!

Happy birthday, Papa!

My friend Steph and her two boys came over for a playdate and we were cracking up at how WELL all of the kids were playing. The entire time! Like effortlessly sharing, including everyone, taking turns... come to think of it, we probably spent too much time staring at it happening instead of sneaking to the kitchen table for uninterrupted adult conversation time. ;) We snapped this picture when it was time for everyone to go their separate ways for naps because we couldn't bring ourselves to break up the bliss!

Sweet love. This happens so rarely so I had to document it. If I didn't have one more sleeping babe to get out of the car, I would have let this go on for at least an hour!

Daddy's home from work! Everyone's favorite part of the day :)

We had some people doing work at our house for a few days and they were so sweet to let Ryan watch them work!

Target with one...

...and the other :)

This picture cracked me up. Natalie is about to crash and is extra still, and Ryan is trying to smile with his mouth closed- hah!

Hey big girl!

Ryan in the middle of spelling "Mommy" ;)

Snuggles and stories with Papa!

We got to see our little one at the 20 week anatomy scan! Look at that little face and hand. We cannot wait for June!

Haircut for Ryan and a FIRST haircut for Natalie!

Playing with Nonna and Papa while she waits for her turn!

Natalie pre-haircut, haha- girlfriend does not have time for pictures

Here we go!

And post haircut, haha- she's a mess! Luckily Mrs. Yaya was actually able to cut her hair!

:)

Nonna and Papa walking our crazies across the street for lunch

On the same as her first haircut, she figured out how to climb the stairs- and was clearly so proud- oh boy!

And then there's this one who reads a book at the table ;)

Decked out in our Falcons colors for church last week. Ugh- SO close to a Super Bowl win!

Grocery store post church with one walking and one in the cart

Not the best picture, but the Little Miss in the distance there LOVES crawling to the center of the circle at music class so that she can see everyone and everyone can see her. ;) It is so fun to see their different personalities develop!

So this is the newest mode of transportation for the Nelsen crew! We tested it out last week with our buddy Ryder as the stand-in third Nelsen. ;)

IKEA with these four and our double wide buses! We love play dates with Aunt Steph and her boys!

Nonna and Papa joined us too!

This girl was a big fan of the play area at IKEA.

And last but not least, two of our most recent pictures from Instagram:

Just a little mid-day hand washing from the one who wishes public nakedness was acceptable. 

It cracks me up how much being on opposite ends of the charts makes their 18 month age gap seem so much wider- love these crazy two so much!

Happy weekend, friends!