Routine - anatomy of a day at home with Jolly

7: up! Scoop child out of bed, diaper change before sufficient wakefulness for proper indignity. Time for breakfast: usually an installment of fruit, milk, cheerios or other breakfast cereal, a faux-sausage patty, yogurt, then eventually when it's ready, some of mummy's oatmeal and (herbal, decaf) tea. Then time to play while I check email. Playtime involves chasing around the house to the soft strains of German radio, then tearing apart the top drawer of the bathroom cabinet. The top drawer of the bathroom is promptly babyproofed - the lip gloss bag relocated to where the other cosmetics are. Then, together do kitchen cleanup: there is always some dancing involved, and because Ephiny is gone, it's German radio and some walzing!

10:30 - tired, as always happens after 3-3.5 hours of being awake. Offer more food, then off to naptime for Jolly. Smooth naptime transition without wails of rage... thanks, Dr. Ferber! As I am already wearing exercise clothes (super awesome tip: I always get directly out of pjs into my workout clothes, or even just sleep in the workout clothes so then there's no excuse for NOT getting it done), I give in to inertia and meander over to the garage with water bottle and baby monitor and laptop. Today, I am joined by a ueber-cheesy life-affirming historical family-drama and romance (Love's Unfolding Dream, not kidding). Jolly's nap manages to end just as the movie has come to its syrupy end and my workout is twice as long as I had planned. Apparently, Dr. Ferber not only revolutionized my child's sleep, but also my cardiovascular fitness. Thanks, Dr. Ferber! My pants thank you!

I scoop up Jolly in a very sweaty hug, ensuring that he will also have a mandatory shower... but after lunch, since there's really no point to the other order. Jolly has an appetizer of left over veggies from yesterday and some crackers, while I cook a really delicious zucchini egg-white omelet with feta and a sprinkle of cheddar. Leftover veggies rendered vastly more delicious and also vastly more messy by application of tomato sauce. (Because Ephiny isn't here, he may or may not be eating this in his white pajamas. I had a stain remover date tonight so the world will hopefully never know for sure!) After lunch, Jolly helps in the kitchen while I prep some veggies for dinner (by helping I mean "gnaws on all the green beans as I snap the ends off"). The green beans cook while I go out to put out the flag and pick up the mail. It's sunny and gorgeous but the grass is still very wet, so I triage the mail on the deck while Jolly plays on the deck (by which I mean "scoops up handfuls of dirt from the herb garden and puts them in a flower pot, during which he may or may not still be wearing white pajamas.)

Vitamin D doses secured, child has now reached critical dirtiness needed to finally motivate shower action. I am so very grateful that we started showering with Jolly when he was super tiny so he's just used to it now, because splashing about in a bathtub isn't really a good way to get clean if you're really sweaty, and separate shower/bath seems horribly inefficient, and also, would eat into naptime or exercise time. Shower is a big success, as defined by a shower that allows mummy to wash and condition her hair AND shave her legs without Jolly bleeding profusely (or getting cross until it's time to wash his own hair). Also, enormous ball of snot comes out of child's nose - this is not a usual part of the shower routine. Could this be the end of the cold that segued into otherwise unsymptomatic rhinitis?

We get dressed in clothes we could leave the house in. Usually we would actually at this point leave the house to run errands or go to the library, but we'd run all over the greater puget sound area yesterday so I felt very much like a lazy day at home. Thus, we carry on in the same vein, tidying around the house, playing, and another nap at 4 ensues. Again, a calm, happy baby is put down after a story and short lullaby, and Dr. Ferber is once again clutched close to my heart. Up again, we make the rest of dinner and eat it and bedtime at 8 after a quick skype with Ephiny. Bedtime is the same routine as naptime, only there's teeth brushing involved and both the story and the lullaby are longer.

Thinking about our day, I am struck by how much of the time Jolly spends eating, given that he's a super skinny little thing. I think this is explained by his penchant for healthy foods, and also by the fact that he really roughhouses and exercises a LOT during playtime. He's either in my arms, or he's crawling to and fro at a frenetic pace, chasing after the cat and driving the toy cars and realizing the babygate didn't latch.

Speaking of cat, Jolly's enthusiasm is undiminished but as a result of teething has been once again channeling that enthusiasm less into petting and more into biting the fur of. Obviously, this is NOT something we want to form a part of the routine, so we're back in remedial "let's pet the kitty gently" boot camp.

New accomplishment of the day: opening flip phone, pushing buttons, and MAKING CALLS. Seriously. Someone will be keeping her phone further off the ground in the future.