A Day in the Life... Harper's Happenings

June 7, 2011

A Day in the Life… Harper’s Happenings

I’ve got a super awesome guest blogger lined up for you today! Mandy of Harper’s Happenings is pretty much the most hysterical, tell-it-like-it-is mama I know. I caution you not to read her blog while drinking soda lest it wind up sprayed all over the computer screen. She also has a great little online vintage shop full of goodies for babes and home. Bonus reason to read: Mandy’s precocious, doe-eyed daughter, Harper, is so cute she makes my teeth hurt!

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hello dear baby readers! my name is mandy and i’m visiting here from harper’s happenings. i’m honored to be here while melissa, brent and everly veda welcome precious arlo into their lives - so exciting!

i’m a stay at home mama to harper, who is two and a half. our days are pretty crazy - full of lots of energy and toddler antics. i adore this age! toddlers are so funny, innocent, sassy and curious. they can be maddening and within seconds, cracking you up. this particular day was pretty busy, so i chose to use my phone to take photos because let’s face it, lugging around a camera can be frustrating and tedious when chasing a little one.

good morning sunshine! harper wakes up about an hour after me - it’s really important for me to have some alone time before she gets up. mama needs her coffee! when she was a baby i would wake up when she did, but i’ve found i function better with a wild toddler if i get caffeine and a chance to shake the sleep off and try to get ready before she wakes. when she does wake up, we usually cuddle for a while in our bed or watch a show on pbs, then eat some breakfast. then i get her ready and this day, we were headed out to meet some friends at a play center.

we are super lucky to have a few really neat places for babies and toddlers in our town. being in the pacific northwest we need indoor play centers to keep our sanity and let the kids run wild while staying dry inside. for less than ten bucks, you can play all day and naptime on these days are pretty glorious. and they all have lattes and snacks to keep everyone happy! so thankful we have places like this near us on days when the park is not an option.

time for a quick target run for diapers and wipes and some things i never knew i needed until i saw them in the dollar bins. are the registers at your target broken as well? the ones at ours don’t seem to accept less than $100. so weird. anyway, then it’s home for some lunch. if you have a toddler, you know that meal time can be challenging. i have succumb to the fact that food will be wasted, thrown or flat out refused. i try to just offer lots of choices on the plate and try to be happy about anything that makes into the chute.

naptime! harper’s naptime means different things to me on different days. most days, it means laundry and cleaning. some days it’s photographing for my shop. others it’s vegging out and blogging or catching up on emails. rarely, it means naptime for mama! this day, i managed to squeeze in dishes, vacuuming and some internet-ing. i also managed to cram some food into my face before she woke up and demanded to eat my lunch. even though she refused most of the things on her plate…side eye.

she’s up from her nap and happy! we play dress up, read some books, have our daily (hourly) tea party and my husband scot gets home. this day, i headed out for a little bit of alone time at the thrift store - one of my biggest guilty pleasures. i love that scot and harper get some daddy-daughter time and i get to unwind and zone out for a bit. this doesn’t happen too often because i’d rather spend evenings together as a threesome, but if he offers i’m going to take him up on it!

after dinner, we do bath time and some serious cuddletime on the couch. we wind down with a show and then put the sleepy nugget to bed. time for some tea, mindless television for mom and pops, and catching up on our day together in silence. with a few pug and frenchie snorts. both of us exhausted, time to hit the hay and prepare to get up and do it all again the next day!