Blog Swap - A Day with my 10 month old ~ routines and flexibility

Hi, My name is Maria. Jessica and I both take part in a Blogathon (like a marathon for bloggers) this month. We were encouraged to write a guest post for another blog. We thought that we have a lot in common, since our girls are the same age. So we decided to write guest posts for each other.

So, who am I? I'm a Swedish girl, living in California. (My husband is born in Sacramento.) In a few words - I´m one busy Lady! I'm a Wife, Mother, Photographer, Horse trainer, Preschool Teacher, Baker and Author of http://discoveringranchlife.com. My husband calls me Queen of The Ranch. I dedicate most of my time to my family (humans and animals) at Northcutt Ranch. Horses have been my biggest passion since I was two years old. We have 15 horses, 13 of them are rescues.

A day with my 10 months old ~ routines and flexibility

When I sat down to write about a "typical" day in my life with Hayley I started to laugh. "Typical day"?? Hahaha, Hayley and I have traveled a lot lately. Her dads work had taken him to different places in California, and in order to see him (which we are addicted to!) we choose to tag along. Being on the road makes every day different, but I realized that we do have some routines that we always stick to, wherever we are. Routines that contributes to a happy, healthy life. I'm going to write about those. Our mornings usually looks the same.

Hayley wakes up around 5.30. I nurse her in bed for about one hour. She falls back asleep.
Mama gets up, while Hayley and daddy stay in bed. I eat a light breakfast - a glass of water, some Greek yoghurt and a fruit. After that I have some "baby free time". Often the only "baby free time I have during the day. If I'm lucky I have between 1-2 hours for myself. That's the best time of the day for me to get some exercise. I either take the dogs for a long walk, or exercise a horse (depending on if we're with our horses, or traveling.)

When I get home Hayley wakes up within minutes, always starving. The first thing I do when I come home (after feeding the dogs) is to prepare a "finger food breakfast for Hayley". I make a sandwich that I cut in small pieces, along with a fruit (a banana, apple, watermelon, strawberries etc.), some raisins and a yoghurt smoothie in a bottle. When Hayley wakes up I change her diaper and place her in her chair with her food. That gives me time to take a shower while she's eating breakfast with daddy. After my shower I join them for a cup of coffee. It's first after that our day really begins

No day looks exactly the same, but they have some things in common; a lot of time outdoors, playing with Lego, Cooking, taking care of animals, Swedish songs (I dedicate 1-2 hours every day to teach Hayley my native language) and reading books/telling stories.

Hayley is a happy baby that loves being outdoors. She loves to go for long walks and explore new things. Despite her small size, she eats like an elephant. She absolutely loves food. Being a mom to a ten month old is intense, fun, challenging and a lot of fun. We have a tendency to get ourselves into a lot of adventures. I would love for you to follow us http://discoveringranchlife.com.

Be well, Maria

You can find Jessica's post about life with Emma on the Discovering Ranch Life blog http://discoveringranchlife.com/2013/06/12/guest-post-by-jessica-dunn/