One Morning with Kim {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 AM A MORNING PERSON.

(There, I’ve said it. Don’t hate me for it.)

I am. Always have been. I begin talking at the break of dawn and don’t stop until well after the sun has gone down. My husband, well, he is not a morning person. He deserves to get showered and into his day, before he has to be an audience to every last question and direction. Because once I start, I just can’t stop.

Thursdays are an interesting day in my house. The husband takes Red to school, and I take the Baby to T and PopPop’s for a couple hours while I head into Stamford for my Job Search Work Group. It feels like going to work, but it’s not work, but I get to dress like it’s work. Yay all around.

It usually begins with Red coming into our room to tell us that she has either gone to the bathroom, needs to go, or wants to snuggle. Most mornings, we snuggle for about 35 seconds before she demands to watch Team Umizoomi, Wallykazam or Sesame Street. Some days, we get lucky, and she just wants to snuggle, until she sees the baby monitor light up. “Let’s Go Get The Baby” is her favorite thing to do.

This morning was unusual. I was up before Red, so she joined me in the kitchen and picked out her yogurt from the fridge. Red loves Greek yogurt. She eats that while I am starting lunches for the ladies to take to school.

While I am making lunches and tea, my husband greets Red and she tells him all about her dreams. Sometimes, they are wickedly vivid, but most times they reflect what she wants to do for the day. Most times they involve her being Elsa and freezing someone and then going in “cousin Noah’s pool.” Sad part, she has 4 cousins at the house with the pool. Noah just happens to be the one she is attached to the hip. I will be so sad the day we tell her he is in college. (he’s a sophomore now, but she believes he will be forever waiting on her hand and foot.).

And before you get excited, we are heavy coffee drinkers, but are on a wellness transformation, so for 10 days we  were doing a vegan cleanse. I figure since I am not working right now I can really focus on taking care of myself and discovering what I will and will not do for a health transformation. Bottom line, I cannot wait to head back to coffee.

Daddy and Red greet The Baby. The Baby is 16 months, still trying to ween her from the pacifier (which is either called a Bobby or a LaLaLa in my house), but she wakes up pretty happy. Like Red (and her Mama), she really wants to get moving and see her sister, and babble baby talk and start her “work” which is usually dragging a purse or shoes to their respective owner. This morning, we realized the Baby has two more teeth coming in. So giving her the Bobby wasn’t so bad, right?

Now, it’s breakfast time. The Baby likes to do things on HER time, which is usually nobody else’s arrangement. This morning she spent a couple minutes pulling out wipes from the container before breakfast, so if you see a frizzy haired woman with a pack of overstuffed wipes, just know, IT WASN’T MY FAULT!

Daddy has to wrangle the Baby to her booster for breakfast. She was having oatmeal, as we are desperately trying to get her familiar with using utensils, and not her hand. As you can see, it doesn’t always work. But practice makes perfect.

My children are not known for their flowing locks from birth. Red was bald until she was about 2, and the Baby has just recently been introduced to pigtails, or “antenna” as my husband likes to say.

This morning I was super excited to get her hair into two piggies while she was occupied with her oatmeal. Little was I to know that she would use the oatmeal as a gel, and for the rest of the morning look like “There’s Something About Mary”. Ahh, well! For a just a few minutes we can all sit together and have breakfast. This is unusual, since one of us is in the shower while the other is handling breakfast and lunches. Because this was Thursday, both girls were headed to school for a full day and needed swim wear, changes of clothes and lunch. Good news is that we packed it all the night before and were able to relax a bit.

While I sneak off to the shower, the girls get to watch Sesame Street. Both of them love Murray (so do we) and Telly, and neither one likes Elmo the Musical. Red says in her most disappointed voice “Aww, I wanted Elmo’s World!” I’ll be honest, I prefer Elmo’s World as well– in my younger days I was lucky enough to work with all 4 of the “Mr. Noodles” family. So if that’s on, I’ll usually watch it with them.

After the girls “help” me put on my makeup, we get Red dressed for the day. This involves finding shoes the Baby has moved, getting the right sized big girl underwear “Mommy, it HAS to SAY 4t!” and somehow we get a full dance production in the style of Elaine from Seinfeld. The Baby is content to pull clothes out from the drawers for dramatic effect. On this morning, there were some really adorable tickle and cuddle moments with the sisters that melted my heart a little.

Now is the time we brush our teeth. We are not perfect parents. But we figured out a way to get everyone to brush their teeth– we have our toothbrushes in both bathrooms JUST IN CASE we need to give an example on how to brush. This morning, the ladies had it handled.

Except when the baby didn’t. As always, it is not a morning if someone isn’t in tears. This morning, the Baby smacked her head on the door jam of the bathroom. Daddy sat down to comfort her, and got her ready to go.

Red is ready to go (after her time at the ‘salon” she then “finds a guy” to snuggle with at naptime and gets a book– all things I wish I would have done in my 20s and she’s making it happen at 3) and the Baby gets her final change and out the door we go.

On this morning, Daddy took Red and I took the Baby. We gave kisses, hugs and Ugga-muggs (a Daniel Tiger reference) and after a brief discussion of “what’s for dinner” Red decided that it was pasta night with meatballs. Whoo-hoo– easy dinner for me to make and I can still keep on the cleanse without straying!

Although not entirely reflecting our day to day routine, we were able to stick pretty closely to our 2 hour from rise to leave time. Toddlers are hard (note the pigtails– one pony, one braid, and hair half down), but I wouldn’t change it for the world!

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.