a day in the life

I'm not sure why I haven't done one of these posts already. Most of my fave mommy bloggers have shared insights into their routines. Since I'm back to work now, I'm going to share a pretty typical Saturday. This is longgg, but, hey, it's real life.

6:15 am: Jacob is awake and saying so, loudly, from his crib. He's not crying exactly, but he definitely isn't impressed. This is one of my favourite moments of the day, because when I walk through his bedroom door, his sour face turns into a huge grin. It's pretty awesome to be loved like that. He's standing and starts to wildly slap the side of his crib as I approach, laughing. I scoop him up and nurse him briefly. During the week, I usually don't nurse him in the morning. It depends if he woke up to nurse during the night or not. We're slowly starting the weaning process, but that's a topic for another time. Today, he's distracted from his first snack of the morning by his infectious happiness. He keeps smiling up at me and I urge him to continue for a few more minutes. When he's had enough, I ask "Where's Dada?" and he whips his head toward the door. I say, "Let's go find him!" and we sneak into our bedroom where he pounces on Husband. "Good morning, mister boy!" is his daily greeting to Jacob. We spend some quiet time in bed. Jacob scales the headboard to look out the window as he does every day lately. He squeels at the sounds of birds chirping and dogs barking outside.

6:30 am: We all journey into our open-concept kitchen-living room area. Husband puts Jacob down on the floor and the baby starts to consider what kinds of mischief he can get into, crawling around the furniture, picking up and disgarding toys in his wake. Husband makes the coffee while I start to organize breakfast and Jacob scoots around underfoot. Jacob's having leftover French toast, diced pairs and lots of water. Husband and I are just having bagels today.

7 am to 8 am: Husband and I trade off between feeding Jacob and feeding ourselves. It's become so easy, this part of our day. It just flows. He does one thing, I do another, and it's all unspoken, yet somehow it all gets done. Husband goes to grab a quick shower, so I wipe Jacob's messy hands and face and we head to the play area in the living room. Jacob stands at his activity table, making music and bobbing his head and hips to the sounds. I sing a few songs -- we're stuck on Baby Beluga and Down by the Bay at the moment. Husband returns and I take my chance to get ready for the day. As I leave them, they're playing catch with a big beach ball and Jacob is laughing hysterically each time the ball slaps the floor and Husband shouts, "Ouchie!" They have the same sense of humour. God, help me.

8:15 am: Jacob's ready for his morning nap. This is his most predictable time of day; he almost always wants to nap exactly two hours after he woke up for the day. Since I can't feed him during the day on weekdays, I try not to do it on the weekends either because that would be confusing for his, albiet flexible, routine. Husband takes him to his room with a couple ounces of formula. They reada couple books and Jacob goes into his crib awake, but drowsy. He's asleep within five minutes.

Now, Husband and I clean up the breakfast mess, do a load of laundry, and tidy Jacob's toys. It's a cool, cloudy morning, so we veg on the couch and watch a couple reruns of The Big Bang Theory on the PVR. He catches up on sports online and I draft a couple blog posts. We both have another cup of coffee.

9:30 am: Jacob's awake. Not a great nap, but long enough that he's in a great mood when he wakes up. We change his diaper and dress him for the day. I grab our pre-packed diaper bag and we all head out for some errands. We'd usually put him back in his highchair for a snack at this point, but instead we bring a few snacks for the road, including mum mums and a sippy cup of water.

10 am: We're at Costco just as it opens in hopes to avoid the weekend infestation of people. Jacob loves Costco. LOVES. I don't know if it's the super huge cart that he rides in, or the millions of people who stop and say hello to him or give him a smile and a wave, but the kid is on cloud nine. Fine by us, makes shopping a breeze. We are efficient, get what we need and get out.

10:45 am: We still managed to spend nearly an hour from start to finish in Costco, so it's on to Walmart for a few more things, including diapers, which are on sale, plus I have a coupon, of course (if you are a new or soon-to-be mum, take my advice: never buy diapers at full price). We also find an adjustable pair of sandals to fit our boy who was blessed with what we like to call "meatball feet" ... you know, pretty much as thick as they are long. On clearence for $9. Deal. We throw a few more odds and ends into our cart and beeline for the checkout as Jacob's deciding he's had enough retail therapy for the day. I finish our transaction as the boys take a walk outside.

11:30 am: Home again from a successful outing. Jacob is glad to be home and shows us so by crawling like a marathoner into his room. We call his name and he peeks out and laughs. What a joker. "What are you doing?!" I call and he squeels and takes off into the bathroom. We recently caught him attempting to crawl in for a toilet swimming lesson, so we invested in an $8 lid lock. Works like a charm. Now he just uses the firmly closed cover as a big drum. Within seconds he's pulled himself up and I hear the familiar bang, bang, bang on the plastic lid. I retrieve him from his impromptu concert and deposit him into his highchair for lunch. On his menu: chic peas, green peas, bits of cheese, more diced pears and some yogurt. He's not so interested in the green peas today and most of them end up on the floor. Once he seems satisfied (read: refusing to eat another bite), he is released from the clutches of his chair. He's less interested in being solo on the floor and demands my company, so Husband takes care of clearing the mess and Jacob and I retire to the living room again for some Wiggles.

12:30 pm: Time for nap No. 2. This nap usually occurs about three hours after the wake up from the first nap, but it isn't as dependable as nap No. 1. Today, though, Jacob is exhibiting his classic eye-rubbing, long-yawning signs. After a bit more formula, he's put in his crib awake. He sleeps during naps and at night with either music playing or white noise provided by a static station on the radio. He's not as interested in sleep as he was this morning and cries in protest. We can see in the video monitor that he's sitting up. Wait, no, he's standing. He protests for a couple minutes and just when I'm thinking of going in to soothe him a bit, the cries start to stagger, mixed with periods of quiet or soft babbling. We hold off going into his room, and he transitions quickly from standing to sprawled out on his belly. In less than five minutes total, he's snoozing. It doesn't sound like long, but if you've been witness to a crying baby, every minute can feel like an hour. Lately, since I miss out on naptime through the week, I find I want to go in sooner than I should. When I resist the urge, I'm almost always glad that I did. He's doing very well at getting to sleep on his own, and we're very thankful.

12:30 to 2:30 pm: Husband heads out for a round of golf with a neighbour. Lovely friend A comes over to visit. She and I chat in the kitchen while I make a batch of muffins and then catch up on a few TV shows that were saved during the week (titles of which shall remain nameless, to protect our dignity coughPrettyLittleLiarsandTheBachelorettecough).

2:30 pm: Jacob is awake from a great nap. He's happy to see Auntie A and she's equally delighted to see him as she fetches him from his crib. They play and I take some photos. I used to take so many pictures of Jacob when I was on maternity leave, but there are a lot fewer now that I'm not staging photoshoots during the day. I try to make up for it on the weekends. The three of us decide to take a walk so we load Jake into his stroller and head out. We take our picnic blanket along and spread out at a nearby playground. Jacob swings and I take some more photos. We all enjoy some watermelon. Jacob explores the grass and watches other kids playing. On our walk back home, Jacob is lulled to sleep from the vibration of the stroller on the sidewalk.

4:30 pm: We're back home and A is happy to play with Jakey while I get supper organized. I'm not ashamed to say that I love having someone else around to take over with Jacob while I cook dinner. It's one of those little Muma's time-out things I really enjoy. Life is much easier now that I don't bother with purees and Jacob eats mostly the same things we eat. I make simple pasta with tomato sauce and cottage cheese mixed in for Jacob; I jazz up the adult sauce with veggies and chicken for the meat eaters. Husband returns home and we all eat dinner. Jacob makes a huge mess with this meal so he is just dressed in a diaper, which leads to yet another photo op — orange tinted sauce spread over his hands and face.

5:30 pm: Into the tub with you, dirty kid. We soap him up from head to toe, give a quick rinse and out he comes. I like to let him crawl around naked for a bit after his bath. I think it's adorable; he thinks it's hilarious. Win-win. In the hot weather, he sleeps in a T-shirt onesie or just in his diaper. I'm looking forward to the fall, though, because miss his snuggly footie pjs.

6 pm to 7 pm: The boy gets to play a bit more before bed. Sometimes we dance around the house to some mellow songs or read some books. Once he's completely tired out, I take him for some Mama time. I nurse him and talk to him. He usually ends up falling asleep on me while he has his bedtime snack. I hoist him up on me, snuggle him up and pat his back. He usually wakes as I lay him in his crib, but he wraps his arm around his buddy, Hooey (from Oh Say Can You Say?) and settles. I tiptoe out of the room and close the door. I click the monitor on occasionally to check, but generally he's asleep within five minutes.

7 pm to 10 pm: Our Saturday nights aren't exactly wild and crazy lately, but that's fine by us. We recently got a Netflix subscription and we've been enjoying watching some oldie-but-goodie movies. Even on Jacob's crankiest days, we usually end our evening by talking about him and how lucky we are. We just can't help it. We marvel at how our lives have changed, mainly for the better. We turn on the monitor to see what kind of crazy position he's sleeping in — he's flat on his back with his arms and legs flung out. Makes us laugh. What a nice boy.