Summer Lovin’

Hey everyone!

Hope you all are having as great of a summer as we are! Since this was my first year teaching, it was also my first year with a summer vacation- and OH. MY. GOODNESS- I’m sold!! It’s not like we’re sleeping in much over here, but getting to spend every single day with my lady love is like a dream come true. Our days vary, but she’s on a pretty good schedule, so I’m getting the hang of our days and starting to knock out everything we need to do while I’m off- eye appointments, doctors appointments, renewing license, tags, tailors, I mean I am knocking out our family to-do list!

So what’s our summer schedule like? Well, Anissa usually wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30 (if I’m lucky!) Since Mr. R has to get ready for work, I take her down stairs and she plays for a while as I make coffee and breakfast. We really love to share Chobani greek yogurt with oats and a bagel, or we’ll have grits, or oatmeal. Those are her faves, and mine 🙂

After breakfast, we head back into the playroom and hang out, I check my email, maybe blog a bit, and she has fun playing on her slide and her ball pit. She’s getting a lot more independent (thank goodness!) because I used to not even be able to be on the sofa if she was on the floor- at least now she is good playing alone if I am near!

After playing for a while, I make her a bottle and set her up for a nap around 8 a.m. She takes her nap in a very specific way- buckled into her infant bucket carseat, with a bottle, watching TV (Diva? Yes.) She sleeps until 11 – 11:30 a.m., so this 3 hour-ish window to do housework, sweeping, mopping, dishes- everything I can’t do with a 14 month-old running around 😉 We’re also prepping for a 2-week vacation to Disney World and the beach, so I spend a lot of time getting things ready for that trip!

When she wakes up, we have lunch- she’s a picky eater, so this is a tough one. Her favorite food is cheese (in any form), so a lot of times she’ll eat a cheese stick and a hot dog, or a quesadilla, or a grilled cheese, but I’m trying my darndest to add in more veggies. Then, she’ll have a banana, some sort of fruit, or a yogurt for dessert.

After lunch is our fun time. This is the time when we’ll either take a walk to the park and play (she loves the slide, which she calls the “Uppa”) or go to the pool (which is her ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing in the world!!) Since she has been taking swim lessons for about 8 months, being in the pool is like playing for her. Plus, she loves her pretty swim suits 😉

After play time, she’ll sometimes take a second nap from 2 – 4, or sometimes she’ll skip it, depending on if we have somewhere to go. If she does, this is when I typically cook dinner since she is stuck to my legs while I cook if she’s awake. We love hanging out with both of our families, so several nights out of the week we are either heading to dinner with one family or another, or going to a free concert in the park like tonight!! Mr. R comes home around 5 or so, and we love playing with him for a while and earring dinner together. Then, we take a bath (come on, showering with your kid is SO much faster than bathing them and then taking a bath and trying to keep them busy!) and get ready for bed. She starts going down around 7:30 and is (usually) asleep till that 5:30 – 6:30 am wake up call the next morning 😉

Some other exciting things we have coming up this summer:

• Father’s Day
• Cousin Ava’s 1st birthday!
• Trip to Disney World with my family
• Trip to the beach with Cele’s family
• Heading up to school to set up my class for next year
• A few classes and enrichment programs for me
• Swim lessons on Saturday mornings

Here’s wishing you all a fun and exciting summer!!

XO,

Amanda