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"What do you do all day?" I get that question a lot when I tell people I am a full time mama. On a typical day we will spend some of our time out and about at classes or activities, running errands, or at play dates.
Skyler usually wakes up around 7:00, we get ready and typically eat breakfast at home. In the morning is when we do most of our activities out of the house, but we always come home to read books and for a nap. While Skyler naps, I will prepare activities, get dinner started, clean, do laundry, and read some blogs or watch an episode of a TV show online if I have time! When he gets up from a 2-3 hour nap is usually when we do activities at home, but sometimes we will run errands or go to a class. We start getting him ready for bed around 6:30 after dinner, we will do a bath and books and he will be in bed by 7:00. Days as a full time mama are full, fun, and so rewarding.
These are some activities that we did this week.
Monday morning we had ECFE class. Skyler's favorite things are the sensory table, which changes frequently, any vehicle toys (currently the little tug boat), usually he makes a craft, and that day he enjoyed watching a snow plow outside (and he apparently watched out the window much of the 45 minutes I was in the parent education classroom!)
Tuesday morning we were at Kindermusik class. This week was a special holiday party and the little one's got pulled around in laundry basket 'sleighs' and we had a snowball fight which inspired our all white sensory bin (I added some extra snowballs to keep our friends anonymous!). Skyler's favorite part of music class is using instruments, especially the drums, though he really enjoys the entire hour. We also take home CD's, books, and instruments twice throughout the sixteen week session and he chooses those materials often when we play at home. This is the third music class we have taken, and is his favorite.
On Wednesday evening, Skyler has swimming class. We have had Skyler in swimming classes since March, and he absolutely loves them. He has learned a lot of skills in the water, but we are taking a break from them since he would be repeating the same class for the third time because of his age. I think we will start these back up in the summer, when he can move up a level.
Thursday we had to do some Christmas shopping at the Mall of America. We needed two things, and ended up spending most of our time finding fun things for a toddler to explore! Skyler loved feeling the bumpy Lego pictures, like this moose, at Lego Land and checking out the big sculptures. We stopped in at the Disney store to color a Christmas themed mask in their little kid craft area, and we spent some time in Barnes and Noble reading books after picking up a gift. Part of the gift we bought was for a Christmas party that afternoon at my mom's in-home daycare (where we go frequently for Skyler to have some play time with little buddies).
Friday my poor guy had a high fever and was not feeling well, so we stayed home that day, and he slept a lot. When he was awake, we played with his new sensory bin, read books, and snuggled!
We were excited to have a weekend with few plans, and decided to do a trip to the Minnesota Zoo. It is one of our favorite places to go, and Skyler always enjoys it. This was the first trip to the zoo since Skyler started walking and it was fun to have him set the pace, choosing how long to stay at each exhibit. We spent the most amount of time at the monkey and penguin exhibits and the aquarium. He was so exhausted by the end of our trip, I thought he might fall asleep in the stroller as we walked to the car, but he lasted until we started driving. He was asleep before we made it out of the parking lot!
Today we took a trip to another favorite place, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Skyler was gifted with a sled at the Christmas party we attended. I knew I wanted to take him to the arboretum to try it out. He had so much fun (and I am looking forward to using the sled to resume daily walks around our neighborhood). In the summer and fall we were going to the arboretum at least once a week. They do story time for little one's and always have beautiful decorations and sculptures to look at. We headed inside after sledding to look at the huge poinsettia and other decorated Christmas trees.
Skyler loved this little Santa, saying "Hi, Santa!" and waving, and then gave a "Beep!" on his nose!
Another popular game was pressing the buttons and watching them light up on the map of the arboretum. Skyler even lit up the garden where his mama and daddy were married!
In the afternoon we went to a special holiday party at the Kindermusik studio. Skyler liked having daddy come along and showing him all of the things he is learning. I always tell Joe how much Skyler loves the class, and he thought I was exaggerating. He couldn't believe how excited Skyler was for all of the activities he gets to do in the class. This was his second time trying out the piano.
A lot of these activities, like swimming class or our trip to the arboretum, are only around half an hour, but it is nice to get out of the house and give Skyler many opportunities to learn new things and explore his surroundings.
This was an especially busy week for us, but it was a lot of fun! The extra music class was a first and we almost always have more plans for the weekend. Luckily, Skyler was feeling better throughout the weekend and was able to enjoy the time out with our family of three. We had been planning on the arboretum Saturday afternoon and trying to make it to the Macy's Santaland in downtown Minneapolis this morning, but Skyler's fever was back briefly on Saturday when we were leaving the zoo. Our next week will be just about as busy with all of the Christmas festivities, and then in the following weeks I think we will have some time to relax.
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