Day in the Life with my 21-Month-Old Toddler

It’s been 6 months since I posted about our 15-month-old routine and I wish I had more of these to look back on. Henry’s learning so much every day so it’s about time I share my day in the life with my 21-month-old toddler. We don’t follow a specific schedule and each day is flexible, but this day in the life is fairly representative of our daily lives right now.

6:30 am – Wake up. Henry woke up twice in the night and got up for the day 45-60 minutes earlier than he typically does. He spent the next half hour running around playing in the bedroom and listening to music while I woke up myself.

7:00 am – Breakfast. Change diaper and give Henry his cereal for breakfast. At 7:30 I finished making my first frittata ever while Henry watched an episode of Blues Clues. I had to wait till 8 to make a yogurt mango raspberry smoothie since Brady was doing a telehealth appointment with his first patient. I shared my smoothie with Henry because he demanded it and then I did some kitchen cleaning.

8:15 am – Independent Play. Henry played while I worked on clearing over 20,000 unread junk emails from my inboxes. I keep most toys put away and things come out/get put away as we need a new activity. If too many toys are out, then independent play never lasts as long. Current favorites: All vehicles and books (90% of play is with these two), bristle blocks/Duplo/wooden blocks, play kitchen/pompoms/dishes, and the IKEA popup playhouse/tunnel.

9:30 am – Walk. I usually take a 60+ minute walk but I had just taken some meds that were making me feel sick so we took a shorter 40-minute walk. We played for 25ish minutes outside before coming in for a diaper change.

10:45 am – Independent play. Henry independent play with his toys with his wooden counting stacker being the highlight of this playtime. He played for most of an hour before asking for tickles. This kid and his tickles. He asks for tickles, gets tickled out quickly, still asks for more but refuses to laugh. lol.

12:15 pm – Lunch. It took about 20 minutes to pull together falafel sandwiches and watermelon cubes. I finished cleaning up lunch while Henry finished eating. Washed up, changed a diaper, pick up a few things in his room, and put him down by 1:10.

1:15 – 2:45 pm – Nap. I started a load of laundry, played a quick game of League, read, and worked on some projects.

2:45 pm – He woke up kind of frustrated so we read books for 15 minutes before having a snack – 1/2 of an avocado on a Wasa crispbread. Then we got ready for a short outing to pick up the keys for our car that was being serviced then fill up with gas.

4:15 – 5:30 pm – Once we get back home, Henry plays in the backyard while I do some work in the garden.

5:45 pm – Eat dinner – We had hot dogs and fresh veggie sticks for dinner. Afterwards, Henry played and I started a load of dishes while Brady completed his paperwork.

6:50 pm – Bedtime routine. Brady finished with work and gave Henry a bath. After getting dressed, I fed Henry, read books for 20 minutes, and got him settled for bed. He was being fussy for the first time in quite a while and took much longer than normal to fall asleep.

7:50 pm – Me time. While Henry worked to fall asleep, I caught up on some messages. Brady went to pick up our car and came home with some frozen custard. Henry woke up around 9 pm so Brady ran up quickly to help him settle and I spent 30 minutes catching up with my dad.

9:45 – 10:45 pm – Shower and bed

So that was my full day in the life with my 21-month-old toddler! There are definitely variances in the day to day but this follows a general framework of how an average workday looks around here. If we weren’t in quarantine with so many places closed, our day would typically include some kind of outing to mall/shops/parks/etc.