Mornings

This morning I took some pictures of Charlie and Lily, and they inspired me to write a post about our morning routine. Mornings and evenings are our two busiest times of day. In the evenings Joe is just getting home from work, the babies need bottles and dinner, Joe and I need dinner, we need to do baths, bottles again, bedtime, etc. The mornings also come with a large "to do" list, but I always find them a bit more fun because Charlie and Lily are usually in such great moods from a (hopefully) good night's sleep.

Our days typically begin somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00 AM, although recently our little early bird Charlie has returned to waking up around 5:30. When they wake up, I bring the babies downstairs to the pack n' play where they chill out for a bit, playing with some toys and watching the jungle crib soother while I feed the cats, let the dog out, etc. If the babies don't wake at the same time it is always Charlie who is up first. If he's awake and Lily is still asleep, I will give him his bottle first. As the babies get bigger and older I'm finding it increasingly difficult to feed them at the same time. They're just so wiggly and easily distracted that it's tough to manage two at once. So whenever I have the chance, I feed them separately. If they are both up at the same time, I'll wake up Joe and he will come down and either feed one of the babies or play with the one who isn't eating. Since he has to go to work each day I try not to wake him if I can help it, but he's always happy to get up and spend time with the babies before he has to leave.

After the babies have eaten, I lay them on their mat to play while I wash bottles and throw on my workout clothes. I then set them up in their jumperoo and excersaucer to play while I do my 30 Day Shred workout. This workout has been a god send for me - it's challenging, effective, and over in less that 30 minutes! Charlie and Lily enjoy watching me jump around, although I do my best to entertain them while I'm getting my workout, often breaking into verses of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as I do the dumbell rows, or yelling "Jump! Jump! Jump!" as I do jumping jacks.
After my workout, it's time for Charlie and Lily's "second breakfast" of solids. Lily LOVES her solids and eats a big bowl of oatmeal and fruit each morning. In the past few days Charlie has just begun to try the solids again. We took a break from feeding them to him since he was doing nothing but refusing them, but now he'll at least open his mouth and swallow some spoonfuls - before he would just purse his lips together and then spit out any bit that I managed to sneak into his mouth. Once Charlie and Lily have eaten, I wash them up and get them dressed for the day. After that, we play together for a bit more and usually read a story and sing a few songs before I put them down for their morning nap. Aaaaah, nap time. Once they're asleep, I hop in the shower, get dressed and try to eat breakfast, drink a cup of coffee and check my email before they wake up and round two of our day begins.


Charlie and Lily being goofy on (well, mostly on) the mat after their morning bottles.
Happy Bug!

Silly Charlie!

"Don't worry, Mom, I got this. Look how much faster I could eat if we did it this way..."

Bananas taste best when followed by some fingers.

Charlie is ready for a nap, but Lily is still on the move. If I didn't stay close, she'd roll right out of the room.