Good morning and happy Friday!

Here is a look at our day yesterday:

I woke up at 5 for some reason, but I slept super well all night, so felt great.  Now that James sleeps through the night, I don’t usually get up super early anymore, but I kind of love it when I naturally wake up early and have time to ease into the day.

I poured some cold brew coffee (super easy if you have a french press – just add one cup coffee ground to a french press, fill with cold water, and let sit over night) and started working on this post.

A little while later I make some oatmeal.  (I’m not good at food photography, but is looked like a bowl of oatmeal…or a “bowl full of mush” for my fellow Goodnight Moon aficionados 😉  I’ve been really trying to eat my meals with James, but he doesn’t eat breakfast until around 8 and I don’t want to wait three hours today.

I read a few blogs and then work on a personal writing project.  It feels so good to get something done before the little guy wakes up, I may start setting an alarm for 5, we shall see….

He starts peeping around 6:30 so I give him a few minutes to wake up and talk to himself (so cute) and then go greet him to start our day!

He gives me a big smile and a big hug.  I love going in to see him in the morning.  I breastfeed him and change his diaper.  We just started doing stand up diapering, which I’ll talk more about next week.  I get him dressed and he plays in his room.

He almost always takes everything off the top of his shelf to start.  He plays for a while and then he goes over and chooses a book.  He gets a big smile on his face when I read him Polar Bear Polar Bear, one of his current favorites.  I read it twice and read some other books too.  He sits and watches and listens and turns the pages.  Reading books is one of the only times he is still!

We play in his room for about an hour.  Toward the end, my husband comes in and plays with him while I make breakfast and empty the dishwasher.  James eats half of a banana and some oatmeal.  He seriously loves this picture of a group of chefs on the back of one of my cookbooks and gives it the biggest smile every time he sits in his chair.

He plays with an empty oatmeal container while I clean up.  After breakfast, we go for a morning walk around the neighborhood.

Some days lately it’s already felt super hot in the morning, but it feels pretty nice today!

When we get home I change his diaper, read a couple more books, and he takes his morning nap.  I work on this post and an upcoming post for next week.  I generally use James’s morning nap for “computer stuff” (blogging, writing, working on his baby book, planning our upcoming vacations) and his afternoon nap for “house stuff” (prepping dinner and cleaning).

He wakes up around 10:00.  I change his diaper and we play in his playroom for a while.  He races over to choose Hello Bugs right away.  I had put this book away for a while and just got it out again a couple of days ago.  He is SO excited it is back; we read it about one million times a day right now and I don’t mind a bit.

We read some more books and look out the window for a while.  He plays with some toys.

After thirty minutes or so, I breastfeed him and then we head out to Barnes and Noble.

James LOVES crawling around Barnes and Noble.  Despite his current love of books, he has pretty much no interest in sitting to read books when we’re there, there is MUCH too much to see.  Crawling around the store, examining things, and watching the big kids was probably the highlight of his day.  I have no pictures because I was following him around and trying to keep things out of his mouth.  I also got Starbucks while we were there.  I try not to get it too often, but I am loving iced soy lattes this summer.

We come home just in time for lunch.  Both James and I have avocado toast with eggs and “cherry plums,” a new fruit I found at Trader Joe’s that we’re both loving.  I’ve never been much of a plum fan, but these are great!  James also eats peas and a few Happy Baby puffs while I’m making lunch (fun fact: I interned for Happy Baby in college, love them!)

James makes it pretty clear when he’s done eating.

I clean up as much of lunch as I can while he’s still in his high chair, talking to him about what I’m doing.  I then speed clean the rest with one eye on him while he crawls around.

After I’m done cleaning up lunch, I watch James explore the living room, pulling up on tables, playing with coasters, and examining the blinds.  Then it’s time for nap #2.  I’m so thankful that he rarely cries now at nap time and bedtime.  He just talks to himself for a few minutes and passes out.

James thankfully took a long (for him) nap after a couple of days of short naps.  I worked on this post, cleaned the counters and floors, and most importantly, settled on a race to run with my little brother!  We’re planning to run the 3M Half Marathon in Austin next January.  My brother lives in Chicago and I’m so exited he’s coming down, and so excited to be running a race!  It has been years since I’ve done one due to my injured foot and I am really looking forward to it.

James woke up around 2:20 and I breastfed him again and then went to the library for baby play time!  Baby story time is on hold for the summer, but the very nice children’s librarian still puts out toys and books for the babies on Thursday afternoons and we always have so much fun there.  Its been more hit or miss as our little ones have gotten older and nap times have changed, but the stars aligned and all of our little buddies were there today.  James was in a great mood after a good nap and I think we both had a lot of fun.

We got home a little after 4:00, I breastfed him again and then my husband came home!  A lot of people in his office are on vacation this week and he’s been able to come home a little earlier the last couple of days, which has been so nice.

James crawled around the living room, playing with coasters, exploring ice cubes, sorting through my recipe cards, and examining a deck of cards.

Eventually I make dinner.  We had leftovers from yesterday’s burrito bowls, so it was super easy.  James had a deconstructed version (black beans, brown rice, avocado, tomato with green onion, and fresh mozzarella because we ran out of cheddar).  I also gave him greek yogurt with some easy blueberry chia jam I made yesterday since a lot of dinner was smaller / harder to pick up foods.

My husband cleaned up dinner while I read a few books to James and then James had a bath.  He’s recently transitioned out of his baby bathtub and he seems to really be enjoying crawling around the big tub and having more space to move.  He is in a really great mood tonight.

After bath time, I breastfeed him one more time, we all read Goodnight Moon together, I sing him a song and he goes to bed a little before 7:00.

I am finishing up this post, and then will likely watch an episode of my latest Netflix obsession, Friday Night Lights.  Yes, I’m a little behind the times.

After a couple of days with short naps and afternoon grumpiness, today was such a fun and happy day!

How has your week been?

What was the best part of your day yesterday?