Day break: woken by the dulcet tones of E-chan experimenting with his vocal chords - "ba ba ba, da da da, agooo!", more recently "ma ma ma maa ma am muuum!" :D , and any noise that can be made whilst inserting fingers in mouth. Greets us in cot with gorgeous smile, then comes into our bed for a little bit of play and cuddling while we wake up properly.
Breakfast: All 3 of us make and eat our breakfast over about half an hour. Afterwards, it's morning play time for a little while then E-chan has his bottle. Sometimes we go for a walk with Dad to the train station, stopping off to have a swing in the park on the way back.9am Morning Nap: sometimes this is a morning nap in the pram whilst I go for a walk or make my way somewhere by foot, but most mornings it's nap time in the cot, roughly 3 hours after waking up. Sleep for between 1 and 2 hours. I do the dishes or any urgent housework, prepare a sandwich for lunch, have a shower, or sit down and read/watch something I taped off the telly (ie something that can be interrupted if he wakes up). Most Fridays I go for a swim with some other mums, taking it in turns to mind the babies while we do laps.
10:30-11:30 ish: get dressed and prepare to go out. Every 2 or 3 days we make sure we're at home much of the day, but might nip out for a bit. Activities include attending local playgroup, meeting other mums and in the park for lunch, shopping, visiting, or a special outing. Last week we went to Clovelly Beach. That's right. Beach on a week day. The kids splashed around in the shallows before lunch, then we took it in turns with the snorkel while the rest minded the kids. Next week I am visiting another former-colleague-who's-had-a-baby in Bronte. This is the life.
12:00 - 1:30 ish: lunch time. At home or in a park somewhere, or at someone's house. This has gotten trickier since E-chan learned to shake his head from side to side when he doesn't want to eat something. He can be quite emphatic about it! I usually feed E-chan 2-3 different things... that way he can decide he doesn't like one of them all that much but will at least eat the rest. LOVES grapes, banana, melon, and chicken and corn soup. The rest is OK but may require much pleading, silly faces (from me or him) or coersion. He tends to like trying bits of my lunch, whatever that is. Has a bottle about an hour later.1:15 - 2 ish: play time to help the food go down, or we go for a quick walk with the seat up (so he won't go to sleep) to buy some groceries or "run errands" as the Americans say.
2:15 - 4 ish: afternoon nap time. I start to think about dinner, what to do this afternoon, relax, ring someone up, catch up with emails, or do a load of washing. Every so often he won't sleep, so after an hour or so of trying to get him to sleep, I put him in the pram (but lying flat) and he zonks almost instantly.
4 - 5 ish: afternoon play/walk/quick duck out to "run errands" or E-chan playing while I do some cooking (this is possible because he's not fully mobile yet).
5:00- 6:30: Dinner time for E-chan. See lunch time, issues are the same,
but I'm not eating my dinner yet so can't feed him my dinner. At this stage he's having a bath every second day, but will bathe him regardless if he has smeared dinner in his hair. Has his bottle sometime between 6 and 6:30, and sometimes his Dad is home in time to do that.
6:30 - 7:30pm wind-down play: This is where we may get to cook or even eat our dinner, while E-chan has some quiet play with one of us. When he show signs of tiredness (usually becomes unco, or flops onto his back to lie down), we scoop him up, brush his 4 little teeth, change his nappy, read him a book (current favourite is Dr Seuss's "Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You?"). Then we say goodnight to his teddy's and soft toys, put him in his little sleeping bag, and kiss him good night! Usually he goes to sleep within 30 minutes, and we don't hear from him again until morning....
Some days are more difficult than others, especially when you really need to get something done, as that is usually the day he WON'T GO TO SLEEP without a walk in the pram, and those days tend to end up with me just a little bit frazzled. But C-chan comes home and helps out, then there is usually time to unwind fully once he's gone to bed, and we're really lucky that those sleep issues we had a few months ago have pretty much gone. I reckon being a full-time parent is a pretty priveleged way to be living, and I'm trying to make the most of it while I can!
* yeah, I know "housewife" isn't the right term for it. Don't like the term either, but can't be bothered thinking about what I'd like it to be called, and don't think it really needs a name.
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