One Morning With Aarika {A Photo Essay Series}

“One Morning” is a photo essay series that provides a sneak peek into the everyday lives of the Fairfield County Moms Blog contributors. The morning routine is photographed by N. Lalor Photography and words are written by each mom to tell the story behind the images. It’s a rare and intimate look into each family’s life, one morning at a time.

I have always cherished mornings. I think it’s mostly because I’m almost always the first one awake in my house and it’s so quiet and calm {even if it’s only for a few minutes}. During the school year, mornings are usually my “me time.” I work full-time all year round, but my husband is an Athletic Trainer at a private school, so he works in the afternoons/early evenings and, therefore, spends mornings with our daughter at home before he brings her to school. Which means that I have the mornings before work to myself. After I hit snooze a few times, I start my day with a workout followed by a shower, getting dressed and then getting everyone’s food ready for the day. Although I enjoy starting my day in such a peaceful way, I do miss seeing my little lady before I go to work.

During summer, my husband is usually traveling for the Army Reserves and I am on my own to get my daughter and I ready for school and work. I cherish those mornings too because I get to pick out outfits and get those first morning snuggles and kisses that I usually miss out on. And on rare mornings in the summer, my husband is home and my daughter goes to school in the morning, which means we are all getting ready together. These are my absolute favorite mornings. This year, I was so spoiled and we had this routine for the entire month of August. I am so grateful that we were able to capture one of these mornings, so that I can remember it forever.

I don’t want to say this too loudly, but we have our morning routine down to a science this summer, and it is too easy. I know that this is all about to change once Baby Girl #2 arrives in December, but I plan on cherishing this time until then. Although it’s a pretty quick routine, we are able to get lots of laughs, hugs, and kisses in before we all part ways until dinnertime.

On this particular morning, I was already up since 5am getting a workout in, showering, and getting dressed. I aim to finish these 3 things before I get my daughter up so that I can spend the most time with her once she is awake. Around 6:15, I start getting our breakfasts and lunches packed for the day.

Since our time getting together in the mornings was coming to an end since my husband is now back at work, I decided to make one of our favorite breakfasts: chocolate chips with a side of pancakes. While breakfast is cooking {usually, this means cooking something frozen in the toaster}, I get the rest of our food ready for the day. I continue to check the clock and once it hits around 6:25, it’s time to wake that little lady up! Her hair is usually a wild mane and I wouldn’t want it any other way. This morning, she was very happy to see us and had a big grin on her face.

While she wakes up and says good morning to all of her favorite buddies, we pick her clothes out for the day and start getting her ready.

Like I said, our mornings always include a lot of hugs and kisses. This was such a sweet moment because I was in the kitchen finishing breakfast, and Emmy came running out of her room down the hallway yelling “Mommy!” and gave me a big bear hug. She then rubbed my belly to say good morning to her sister.

Next it’s time for our bathroom routine, which includes hair brushing and drying, makeup, tooth brushing, and the most important of all, picking out which hair clip she will wear that day. On this day, she insisted on dragging a chair into the bathroom to sit on.

My husband will sneak out to walk our dog Meiko {lovingly called by Emmy as “Poopie”, which makes for interesting conversations when her teachers tell us that she says she misses her Poopie} while we are finishing with our bathroom routine.

Our routine then brings us back into the kitchen, where Emmy inspects her pink breakfast bag to see what fruit I’ve picked out for her. This usually ends up in switching a banana for apple sauce or apple sauce for a banana or strawberries for pineapple, etc. She also gets to pick out 1 stuffed animal to bring to school and puts it into her breakfast bag. In case you’re wondering, Pluto went to school with her on this day.

You’ll notice that we don’t sit down together to eat breakfast during the week. Some people may find this unusual, but this is just us. When my husband brings her to school, they do eat breakfast together, but I always eat breakfast at work. This makes the weekends when are all together that much more special. We always have big breakfasts on the weekends and enjoy going out to the Diner so that we can all relax and spend time together.

Next it’s time to put on shoes and get ready to head out the door. Emmy is getting really good at putting her shoes on and wants to do it on her own more often than not, but this morning she wanted to sit on daddy’s lap to do it. Her breakfast bag says “Daddy’s Girl” and it’s definitely accurate.

One of Emmy’s favorite things to do is feed her Poopie dog. We put the dog food in this container so that she can open it and scoop it out on her own. This sometimes ends up with food all over the floor, but it’s so adorable to see her give the food that I’d rather clean up the mess than not let her do it.

At 6:45, it’s time to head out the door and head to work and school.

Once we get to school, we set out Emmy’s breakfast and get her settled in her classroom. This might be my favorite time of the day, even though we are saying goodbye to each other. She gives me the sweetest kiss, biggest hug, and says “buh-bye Mommy.”

Images for this project are captured by N. Lalor Photography, a lifestyle portrait photographer based in Fairfield County, CT. To see all posts in the “One Morning” photo essay series view here.