I had planned on writing a "day in the life" post every three months
or so, but somehow I skipped the six month mark. So, here is a typical
day with Arlo at nine months old. I am working two days a week right
now, so this is a day that I would spend at home with Arlo.
Monday, October 13, 2014
6:00
AM: most days you could almost set an alarm clock to this kid, and
today was no exception. He literally started calling for us from his
room at 6 o'clock on the dot. Erik gets up with Arlo, changes him, and
gives him the first bottle of the day. This is our little agreement,
Erik takes the early morning routine, but if Arlo wakes up in the middle
of the night, then I am the one to get up with him. I think I have the
sweet end of the deal on this one, as it's pretty rare for Arlo to not sleep through the night. On the weekends, I get up early
with Arlo and let Erik sleep in. Periodically, we both get up together,
but our system of taking turns allows us to both feel well rested most
days of the week.
6:45 AM: Erik brings Arlo upstairs and
puts him in bed with me to wake me up. Half-asleep, I find myself
suddenly covered in baby drool, and being whacked in the face with tiny
hands. There is no going back to sleep after this!
7:00
AM: I take Lucy for a 30 minute walk while Erik has his breakfast and gets
ready for work. Arlo will usually play in his playroom during this
time, or cruise around in his walker or doorway jumper.
7:30 AM: I am home and take over baby duty so Erik
can finish getting ready for work. Arlo and I will hang out upstairs,
and I start a load of his laundry at this time. As I am tidying upstairs
and getting the laundry going, I am simultaneously chasing after Arlo,
and keeping him from climbing on the bathtub, the washing machine,
furniture in his room, and anything else he is trying to get into.
8:00
AM: Back downstairs now, I put Arlo in his highchair and either let him play with the bead
maze I have suction cupped to his tray or give him a handful of puffs to
occupy him while I make his breakfast, and a cup of decaf coffee for
myself. I then feed him breakfast while I enjoy my coffee. Today his
breakfast is blueberries, bananas, kale, and oatmeal cereal, as well as
some leftover banana pieces that he will feed to himself.
8:30
AM: back upstairs to change Arlo, and clean him up after his messy
breakfast. He crawls around a little bit while I do some more chores
upstairs and chase after him at the same time.
9:00 AM: Time for his morning nap, so I
put him in the ergo and he falls asleep within five minutes. After he
has been asleep for a few, I put him in his crib and head downstairs.
9:15
AM: Time for me to have breakfast, today is simply toast with peanut
butter and a glass of soymilk. After breakfast, I clean up the kitchen,
make bottles for the day, and tidy up the downstairs. If there is time, I
will also check email, and see what is happening in the world of social
media.
10:10 AM: I hear the first noises coming through
the baby monitor. I am still cleaning up the kitchen, and Arlo sounds
happy, so I will let him play in his crib until I am done or he starts
to sound upset, which ever comes first.
Now that he can pull himself up in his crib, he is pretty content to
hang out in there for a good 15 to 20 minutes after his nap, and play
with his toys. He has also recently started to reach through the bars at the end of the crib, into the baskets which contain his cloth diapers. One by one he picks them up and throws them on the floor.
10:25 AM: I am done in the kitchen so I
had upstairs to get Arlo. He is starting to sound a little fussy at this time so I assume he has run out of diapers to throw (note to self: find new storage place for cloth diapers.) I change him and get him dressed for the day.
After his morning nap is usually the best time of the day to go out and
run errands, and we try to be home in time for his second nap which
occurs mid afternoon. (We try and get out nearly everyday, either to run errands, meet up with friends for lunch or a walk, or go to the library for story time.) I let Arlo play with his toys we have in our
bedroom while I get dressed and ready for the day. I throw the laundry
in the dryer before we go downstairs.
10:50 AM: Arlo gets
another bottle before we head out the door. Today is Monday, and the
day that I do our weekly grocery shopping, so we are headed off to
Trader Joe's and Whole Foods to buy food for the week.
11:00
AM: I wear Arlo in the ergo while I do the grocery shopping. I also
make a quick stop at the thrift store since it is right next to Whole
Foods. I often walk away empty handed but today I find a cute blue and
grey striped fleece that will fit Arlo this winter. It costs just $1!
1:15
PM: I arrived home to a very excited dog, a dryer that has been beeping
for at least an hour, and a baby who has decided he is
done with
his car seat. I let out Lucy and stick Arlo in the highchair with a
teething biscuit and his sippy cup, which buys me about 15 minutes to
finish unloading the car and putting away the groceries.
1:30
PM: I feed Arlo his lunch, which today is broccoli, tricolored lentils,
and sweet potato. I premade this food yesterday, froze around 12 meals,
and saved a few jars worth in the fridge that he could eat fresh. He also eats
half of a kiwi for dessert. Normally I would sit and eat lunch at the
table while I fed Arlo, but today I unintentionally snacked my way
through lunch at whole foods. It wasn't my fault that they put out vegan
sushi, garlic bread, and delicious tortilla chips as samples. I
might
have made two trips around the sample area. And then requested to sample the vegan gelato for dessert. Twice. #noshame. Hey, we spend
enough at whole foods each week that I think I can sneak in a free lunch
once in a while ;)
2:00 PM: I clean up the lunch mess and then take Arlo upstairs to change his diaper and get him ready for his nap.
2:15
PM: I wear Arlo to sleep in the ergo, and then put him down in his
crib. Now I can finally give attention to the still beeping dryer and
fold the load of clothes that has been waiting for me.
.JPG) |
| This much laundry. Three times a week. And this is all for Arlo! |
3:00
PM: As soon as I get downstairs and realize that I have a few minutes
to sit down and take a little break, I hear Arlo waking up on the baby
monitor. The last few days his afternoon nap has been less than an hour
long, and I am wondering if this is our new normal. His naps used to be
closer to 90 minutes, and I would use this afternoon break to have a
little "me time" but with the shortened nap I find myself without much
of that these days.
3:10 PM: Arlo crawls around upstairs while I stuff diapers and put away the clothes that I just folded.
3:40
PM: head downstairs to get Arlo a bottle, and then let him play on the
floor while I lay next to him and relax for a little while.
4:30
PM: I text Erik to find out when he is going to be home for dinner. I
hear Arlo crawl towards the front door so I walk over to see what he is getting into. I am
shocked to see him climbing the stairs and already climbing onto the
third stair. We recently installed a gate at the top of the stairs, but it
looks like we are going to need one at the bottom as well!
4:45
PM: upstairs for a diaper change, and then I stick Arlo in the doorway
jumper in the kitchen so I can cook dinner and not have to chase him
around the house at the same time. Tonight we are having vegetable
curry over white jasmine rice. Yum!
5:45 PM: Erik arrives
home from work just as I am finishing up dinner. Since our meal is
spicy, we wont be able to share any with Arlo, but if we were having
something plain he would eat some of what were eating. I defrosted some
premade sweet potato last night and heat that up while I plate up dinner
for Erik and I. I also mix in some rice cereal with Arlo's sweet potato
to thicken it up a bit.
6:00 PM: We all sit together in
the dining room and eat. I give Arlo a teething biscuit while I eat and
then feed him his dinner when he is done with the biscuit. Arlo also
taught himself to stand up in his highchair today so he attempts to do
that several times as we are finishing dinner. Looks like I need to get a
new high chair pad/safety strap in addition to the stair gate...
6:30
PM: Erik and I clean up the kitchen together while Arlo sits in his
high chair and bangs his sippy cup on the tray, finishes his teething
biscuit, and babbles to Lucy who is laying close by, hoping he will drop
something on the floor for her.
7:00 PM: Before it
started getting dark out so early, we would often take a family walk
after we finished dinner and the kitchen got cleaned up. It is already
getting dark at this time though, and Erik and I are both feeling tired
so we decide to make it a lazy evening and all lay together on the
living room floor, classical music playing on Pandora. Arlo, of course,
seems to have acquired more energy as the day progressed (I think they
should rename teething biscuits to "energy cakes") so we take turns
chasing after the little man and returning him to the safety of the
living room rug. Tonight we make up a new game of playing catch with
one of Arlo's toy balls while laying on our backs on the floor.
Mindless entertainment that we get more enjoyment out of than Arlo does
watching our whole silly game!
7:45 PM: This is
usually the time where we start getting Arlo ready for bed. Arlo
typically gets a bath every other night, sometimes more often depending on how messy of an eater he decides to be that day, and tonight happens to be a bath night. We have a loose
schedule of taking turns giving Arlo his bath, and tonight Erik says he
would like to take on the task. I heat up the last bottle of the day
(he gets a large one at bedtime - nearly 7 oz) and when I hear bath time
coming to an end I head upstairs with the bottle.
8:00
PM: Since Erik gave Arlo his bath I will be the one to feed him, we
usually switch off so we both get to spend time with him before bed and
Arlo doesn't get used to one parent always doing the same routine. This
is unless it happens to be a working day for me - then I always want to
be the one to feed him and put him to bed since I have been away most
of the day and miss him so much when I get home. While I feed Arlo his
bottle in the nursery rocker, Erik reads us a bedtime story - tonight we learn about "Lindy the
Lobster," one of the many educational kids books that Papa bought for
Arlo on our recent trip to the OBX.
8:20 PM: Arlo falls
asleep taking his bottle, and I let him sleep on my chest for 5-10
minutes, both to enjoy the peaceful baby cuddles and to make sure he is
in a deep sleep before laying him down in his crib.
8:30
PM: Now it's time for Erik and I to take our showers, finish laundry, tidy
the living room, and any other chores we couldn't get done while Arlo
was still up.
9:15 PM: With the baby monitor nearby so we
can hear Arlo if he wakes up, we finally are able to settle onto the
couch together and watch a bit of TV before bed. Sometimes we lay in
bed and watch a TV show on DVD but tonight we find that Shark Tank is on
and we decide to watch that.
10:00 PM: Time for bed, as
our little six o'clock alarm is going to go off before we know it and it
will be time to repeat the whole process one more time...
*
please excuse typos, I dictated these events on my iPod so I could
quickly document our day as it happened. I do my best to proofread, but I
am sure a few mistakes will slip by!
