A Day in the Life of Caroline

I was talking to someone at work yesterday about Caroline's morning routine and we were laughing at the uniqueness of children and how they each have their individual "way", even at two. I thought I'd share a general idea of what a Day in the Life of Caroline looks like!

I usually get up around 5:30 hoping to get a few moments to myself to drink a cup of coffee and maybe have a quiet time (literally), or maybe actually spend some time reading my Bible, praying, or writing in my journal. By 6:00 or 6:30 Caroline is usually awake. She doesn't get out of her bed though until either Jeff or I go in her room to get her. She will sit in her bed playing with her stuffed animals, singing to them, "reading" books, or she might venture out of bed to get a toy and then get back in bed to play with it. Eventually one of us will go in her room to get her and she'll greet us by saying "Hey Mama (or Papa), I awake now!" Almost without fail, she wakes up in a good mood, ready to play, have a little something to eat, and then play some more until it's time to go to "school".

On our drive to school and work in the morning she likes to tell me which way to go; "go dis way", pointing out where I'm supposed to turn. If I decide to go a route different from the one we usually take, she says "no, we go dat way", pointing in the "proper" direction. She also likes to choose the music we will listen to, usually Jack Johnson or Raffi and she loves to sing along with the music.

When I drop her off at school, she runs to hug Mrs. Thelma, her favorite teacher (I think we're all going to be heartbroken when she moves up to the next class and has to leave Mrs. Thelma behind).

I pick her up between 4:00 and 4:45 most days and we head home. Again, she likes to choose the music and tell me how we drive home. On the way home for some reason she likes us to go home the route that takes us over two bridges. Caroline loves driving over bridges! As we go up the bridge, she says, "we going up! Look how high we are! Wee!" And then as we head down, she says, "now we goin' down."

In the afternoons at home she usually has a snack, she'd prefer if the snack was candy, but I try to get her to eat something a little healthier most days. When I tell her that she can't have candy for a snack, she replies, "I do have candy!" That is her way of saying that she wants it regardless of my denial.

After Jeff gets home, we sit down and eat dinner together. Caroline is very good about making sure we always say a blessing before we eat. We all hold hands and she bows her head and sings a blessing she learned at school ("God our Father, God our Father, once again, once again, thank you for our blessings, thank you for our blessings, amen, amen."), or she says in a very quiet voice, "Dear God, thank you for this food, thank you for this day, AMEN!" She shouts the AMEN part and throws her hands up in the air!

Her bedtime routine can be summed up in three words: Bath, Books, Bed. We give her a bath (which she loves; when she hears the water running, she grabs her towel and high-tails it to the bathroom), then get her dressed for bed, read two books (or she reads two books to us), we tuck her in bed, say prayers, sing the ABC song, get and give Eskimo kisses and forehead kisses, and then say night-night. By the time all of that is finished, it's usually around 8:00PM.

So, there you have it! Caroline's day! Here's a pic of our silly girl: