Sooo I really wanted to title this “Day in the Life of a Current Night Shift Working Resident’s Wife Who Is 24 Weeks Pregnant and Has a 1.5 Year Old: 4th of July Edition” buttttt that seemed a little long. I just really wanted to capture what this day was and what we would be working with here:
- A husband who would be working the night of the 4th and needs to sleep during the day so no festive activities together
- A pregnant wife who gets tired easily & this extreme heat ain’t helping
- An active 1.5 year old who loves to explore, run around, and deserves a fun fourth but also can’t hang for fireworks because his bedtime is too early
- A high of 97 degrees which literally feels like 110 with this humidity. Am I exaggerating? Maybe? NO!
- The 4th of July–so most of our go-to places are either closed OR super crowded
To be honest, I was dreading this day just a little since I knew that Joel would be on nights and it was going to be super hot. I wanted to make this day memorable and fun for JoJo because he deserved that!! But I also wanted it to be something I could manage on my own. I scoured Pinterest for different activities that could entertain an 18-month old. Based on my research, I wanted to share what our day consisted of. Then, if you too, have a youngster and/or working spouse for next year’s 4th, you can see some fun things to pass your time and celebrate the day!
Morning Time
We spent the morning taking a walk! We needed to BEAT DA HEAT!! So we took a little walk around our neighborhood. If it was going to stay this temp for longer, we probably would have gone on a longer walk and maybe even gone to a parade. Or be in one?! Peep our Buc-ee’s festive shirt:) Oh ya and the snacks. Must. Bring. Snacks. Everywhere. Especially. Walks.
Then, Joel arrived home around 9:00 so we were able to spend some time with him. I made him breakfast, he played with Josiah, and we had lots of laughs. Joel then went to sleep! It was time for some of our quiet activities that I had planned.
Activity Time!
I saw an idea online to put little pom-poms in a whisk and watch your toddler spend time taking them out. I knew JoJo would be all about this. He’s in a phase of “taking things out of things and putting them back into things”. Like idk this kid LOVES doing that. Give him blocks and a container and he’ll just put them in and out of the container. Give him a bowl of snack food and he’ll do the same. Idk y’all haha!
So, not to my surprise, he loved this! He got the hang of putting the pom-poms in the whisk after he took them out! #GoFineMotorSkills
After sometime doing that, he enjoyed playing a game of dumping the pom-poms out of the little containers after I put them back in. He LOVED this lol. Literally he would go sit far away and wait for me to put them in and then “sneak up” and dump them. I tried teaching him to sort the pom-poms to blue and red, but he just wasn’t getting that. He was more into making messes. Typical.
I will say he tried eating a pom-pom or two, but that was quickly stopped after he attempted to put it in his mouth. This activity probably lasted about 20-25 minutes which was a win!!!
Next, I put these extra beaded necklaces in a container and let him take them out. Again, go figure, he likes taking things out of things and putting them back in! It was a little challenging at first to get it started as you can see his chubby lil fingers going in the container, but he asked for help and persevered.
These activities were super fun and something you could do literally any day, but the fun red, white, and blue colors made me feel like they were festive. Be careful JoJo! Mama might repeat these activities for future holidays, just change up the colors!
NAPTIMES
After the festive activities, watching a little episode of Holy Sprouts because I was tired y’all, playing some non-festive activities, and eating lunch, we made it to that sweet nap time!! I was tired!!!!! JoJo went down to rest and so did I. All my guys were sleeping… except little baby boy Meister who just LOVES to move around and make it super challenging to find comfortable sleeping positions!!!!! The pregnancy pillows aren’t cutting it. So any tips here would be appreciated.
Afternoon Activities!
JoJo woke up from his nap and so did Joel a little after, so we were able to spend some family time together before Joel left. This is something I am so grateful for 💖 Truly, Joel does not have to do this. He could sleep like 2.5 hours more combined in the morning and afternoon–which he probably SHOULD because he’s been working so hard–but he sacrifices that to spend time with his fam. He knows he is his son’s FAV person to play with and that he has a wife that needs to talk and share about every aspect of her day. We all enjoyed this time of playing, dancing to some Veggie Tales songs (y’all need to check out Song of the Cebu if you haven’t. Joel introduced it to me last month and it is a game changer), and ate dinner (Joel) and snacked (Mom & JoJo). It was a sweet time and I’ll always cherish this extra time that Joel spends with us.
We said “bye-bye” to “Dada” and then it was time for our afternoon activities to keep us busy and festive until our bedtimes!
I cleared some furniture and laid down a tablecloth. I could of totally done this outside, but the heat was not fun and I didn’t have the energy to be chasing around JoJo in our neighbors’ yards lol. The first activities we did was this “Sensory Bottle”.
Step 1: Grab some festive supplies at Michaels or the Dollar Store (everything was a little picked over because I bought them the day before Fourth of July BUT it was super cheap and on sale. So decide what is more important to you!). I think I found a good mix of necklaces, vase fillers, glitter, beads, and pins. Honestly THINK CREATIVELY. Just grab anything that is red, white, and blue and looks fun.
Also be sure to grab a bottle of clear liquid glue, super glue (to reinforce the water bottle so it doesn’t open), and a reusable water bottle that works for you! If I had planned this sooner, I probably would have gotten something like this (Amazon Link).
Step 2: Mix an entire bottle of clear liquid glue with 2 cups warm water. Use a fork and whisk it together. This helps prevents bubbles from appearing in your bottle later.
Step 3: Fill your bottle halfway with the water glue and then put in your festive goodies!!!!! Highly recommend putting in glitter. It makes the water look super cool when you turn it.
Step 4: Pour the rest of the water glue mixture and seal the lid completely. Use super glue and/or hot glue to secure the lid in place. You don’t want your kiddo opening up this!!!
Step 5: Watch your kid be mesmerized by this fun bottle!
I was still paranoid that JoJo would somehow figure out the one way to open this, so I made him only play with this on the tablecloth for easy cleanup if there were any spills. He really liked shaking this and putting it upside down and right-side up!
Our next activity was probably both of our favorites: Cool Whip Surprise!!!
I filled a big plastic container with Cool Whip. I dyed it red and blue and hid some toy cars inside. I gave JoJo two spoons and watched him EXPLORE! Not to my surprise, he was more interested in eating the cream rather than finding the toy cars so I was so glad I went with something edible!!! When I researched this online, people used shaving cream. I mean I told you he tried the pom-poms, so I couldn’t risk it!! The substitution had to be edible and I honestly love Cool Whip and would eat/use any of the remnants. I’m using it for homemade ice cream tonight!
JoJo had so much fun with this!! Then, he started smearing the cream on his leg (?!) Idk toddlers, man!!! In the spirit of celebrating our freedom today, I gave JoJo the freedom to do whatever he wanted with the cream as long as it didn’t leave the tablecloth lol. SOOOO I got some Cool Whip on my leg and arms. The pure joy in his face playing with this was so fun. I would totally do this again!!!
Our last little festive activity was watching the fireworks! No, not at night! On YouTube. I found a video of the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom and sat JoJo down. He’s never seen fireworks before and he LOVED them. I can’t wait for him to see them in person one day. He kept going “Aaaaah” and “Wow”. It was so cute!! Also, the Disney Fireworks were great because they had music to them and he loves to jam out.
Bedtime & Mama’s Night!
I put JoJo to bed–which by yourself is never the most fun. We have nighttime routine and I love when Joel can be a part of it too 💔
I think one of the hardest parts of the resident’s schedule is the possibility of not being here for bedtime. Joel is on nights right now so it makes sense he’s not here for JoJo’s bedtime, but it will be interesting to see what his day shifts will be like and if he will make it home in time for this. I just make the most of this time and read an extra story to JoJo, say some longer prayers, and snuggle him a little harder.
I ended the night streaming some local fireworks and eating my FAV homemade chocolate covered popcorn. When your resident husband is working nights, you’ve gotta do something extra to make your nights special. So I treated myself with the popcorn
(Quick recipe for those wondering… pop a bag of popcorn and try to take out as many of the unpopped kernels as you can. Melt dark chocolate and white chocolate in separate bowls… I like using Lily’s Chocolate. Pour the dark chocolate and mix up the popcorn. Then top with the white chocolate. Put in the freezer for at least 10 minutes and enjoy!!!)
This was the first holiday as a Resident’s Wife that I was single-parenting it and I think I did an ok job!! Joel is someone who always makes me more adventurous when it comes to going out, but to be honest, it was just to dang hot to do anything. As the holidays come and Joel has to work, I’m going to make it my mission to make the holidays enjoyable for our whole fam. So from this toddler mama and resident’s wife to you, I hope my sharing of my day can give you some ideas and hope for your next 4th of July holiday!
Check out my instagram @mrsdeclaireinghappiness to see me narrate a reel of this and to follow along in my future adventures!
XOXO,
Mrs. DeCLAIREing Happiness
mrsdeclaireinghappiness.com 