Halfway Through the Day + Search for the Perfect Coffee Travel Mug

Hi friends! Happy Wednesday to you! We’re a little more than halfway through the day and I’m comin’ at you with another real-time blog post with a focus on food, fitness and family. My fav!

Morning

Monday night was rooough around here on the baby sleep front. We’ve been in a much better place with Rhett’s sleep since February but this just goes to show baby sleep ebbs and flows. Thankfully last night things were quite a bit better. Rhett woke up twice and needed soothing/nursing at midnight and at 4 a.m. but I was able to go right back to sleep which was a relief after being up for so many hours in the night on Monday.

Rhett cried a bit around 5:15 a.m. but quickly found his pacifier and went back to sleep. I surprised myself by feeling rather alert this morning and figured I should take full advantage of my morning energy and get a workout in for the first time this week before the boys were up for the day.

I joined Ryan in the garage and streamed a Burn Boot Camp strength workout before leashing Sadie up for a quick one mile run/walk.

Sadie is a Florida girl through and through and often gives us the side-eye if we try to take her on a walk before the sun is up when it’s freezing outside in the winter but it was already 60 degrees at 6 a.m. this morning so she was all about it! And I loved the little bit of one-on-one time with my girl!

I arrived home and heard Rhett stirring on his monitor so I took a speedy shower and then made Chase’s preschool lunch before heading into Rhett’s room to get him up and get some breakfast in his belly. Breakfast 1.0 looked like breastmilk and breakfast 2.0 looked like broccoli for Rhett!

He was only this happy when he was allowed to hold his own spoon and gum all over it. Mr. Independent!

I ate my breakfast as Rhett made a mess of his and dug into a bowl of oat bran mixed with cottage cheese, Kokada coconut spread and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds for some crunch.

Chase and Ryder joined us downstairs once they were dressed and, after breakfast, we read two stories and then played for a bit before it was time to head out for preschool drop off.

I took my latte to go which has become a habit of mine lately since I know I’ll be able to drink it and won’t be interrupted. Whatever works!

And speaking of coffee on the go, I am on a mission to find the perfect coffee travel mug and I’m hoping one of you out there might be able to point me in the right direction. I’m looking for a to-go coffee mug with the following features:

• Fits in a cupholder
• Has a handle
• Has a ceramic interior
• Has a non-breakable (ideally stainless steel) exterior that isn’t hot to touch when filled with hot coffee

Does this exist? Or is it some kind of coffee mug unicorn?

I have YETI and  Swig travel mugs and like and use them both but I also kind of feel like something about the stainless steel interior changes the flavor of my lattes a tiny bit. Am I insane?! My friend Lauren and I have talked about this at length and both often end up bringing ceramic mugs in our car because of this very reason but they don’t keep our coffee hot long enough. Oh the dilemma! Please tell me one of you out there has discovered the coffee cup of my dreams already and can tell me where to find it!

Okay, back to our day…

By the time we made it home, Rhett was ready for his morning nap and I took advantage of some quality time with Ryder. As a mom of three, I find myself acutely aware of any one-on-one time I get with any of my kids and Ryan and I always talk about how much we love uninterrupted time with each of our boys because we always feel like we notice something new and amazing about them and whatever new phase of life they’re in. Ryder and I read some books (his current favorite is Go Dog. Go!), played with blocks and cars and he “helped” me make smoothies for both of us and then Rhett was up and ready to join in the fun again.

I checked the clock and realized we had enough time to made a quick run to the grocery store for some essentials before preschool pickup, so we high-tailed it to ALDI where Ryder loved being in charge of Rhett’s car seat stroller. (I’m tellin’ ya, the Doona is the BEST. Chase and Ryder love pushing it when the handle is on the lowest setting.)

Ryder got a handful of sweet compliments from some adults in the store who praised him for being a good big brother to which he replied, “I’m 2. Chase is 5.” Because ya know clearly they cared about the age of his older brother who wasn’t even with us. Haha! There’s something about a toddler and the way their mind works that melts me and amuses me to no end.

Before we left, Ryder also took his job of filling our green bags with our groceries very seriously and 5 hours (okay, 30 minutes) later, we were ready to head back home.

Afternoon

After a quick turnaround, we found ourselves at preschool pickup again and then made our way to a local park with friends from Chase’s class.

Rhett hung in there like a champ for a while but eventually it was clear he wasn’t going to nap in the baby carrier. We headed home and I nursed him and put him down before making snack plates for the boys and heating up a veggie burger and stirring it into a Daily Harvest bowl for my lunch.

I’m now eating a late lunch and blogging on our front porch while Chase and Ryder are digging for worms. I think we are officially entering that time of year where I find myself commenting on how much I love the weather every 2.5 seconds. With temperatures in the upper 60s/low 70s, I just want to live outside so that’s our plan for the rest of the day until dinnertime.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday, my friends!