Last week was strange. At work, we provide the Board of Trustees with quarterly updates of our work, and with September 30th looming, everyone in our office had to cram five days worth of work into a four-day workweek. (Thank goodness for being a governmental employee, though. A "bad" week means working through lunch, not staying til the wee hours of the morning.)
Home was busy too as Jeff was "promoted" to the position of head coach of a rec league soccer team just days before the season began. He and R spent lots of time getting things ready for the team's first practice, which meant our nights were also busy as we attempted to prepare for Tropical Storm Hanna.
So while I promise to blog a bit about our "hurrication" later this week, for now I am ready to focus on "normal" again. One thing I haven't shared in awhile is our current routine, and whether anyone else cares or not, I'm sure that some day I will enjoy looking back at seeing what our world looked like.
R went through a phase where she would not sleep through the night. In fact, she was getting up many times a night to check on me. She didn't want to miss seeing me leave for work. After trying other alternatives, I finally asked her if she wanted me to get her up before I go to work. She responded with an enthusiastic, "Yeah!" so that is what we now do. R sleeps until I wake her, and I generally get her up around 6:30. We eat breakfast together in the bathroom while we get ready. (Not the greatest of habits, but she also eats a second breakfast with Jeff.) While I fix my hair, she dutifully combs hers, and then we put on makeup together. She has her own clean sponges and brushes to use to apply her "makeup" while I put on mine. She then heads to my dresser and gets out a silver bracelet for me and a plastic bracelet for her to wear. Once we are ready, she happily kiss me good-bye, then she stands at the window to watch me leave. Thanks to the new routine, Jeff says there are also no more tears in the morning when I leave. She waves and is then ready to play or eat her second breakfast.
During the day, R and Jeff have all sorts of adventures together. They typically venture out of the neighborhood at least a couple times a week, as Jeff is enjoying his time with just one kiddo at home. On other days, they stay and play at home or take care of the yard. Regardless of their adventures, R and I always discuss her day when I get home.
As her vocabulary expands, so do the reports of the day's activities. Food still remains the center of her life, and she is good about naming everything they had for lunch, especially if she and Jeff went out to eat. She is pretty good about remember other activities from the day, and she really loved telling me about her trips to the soccer store and league office last week.
As we talk after work, R helps me change into my "mom clothes." While I am changing, she typically tries on my shoes. She has a favorite floral pair of flats that she loves to get out daily. Thankfully, she is also good about putting them away when she is done.
Next is dinner. R is becoming increasingly self-sufficient. For months, she has been responsible for taking her drink from the kitchen to the table. Now she will also go and get her own bib and put it on before the meal. Once we put her in her booster seat, she buckles herself in. After eating, she places all the dishes and cups from her tray on the table, takes off her bib, and washes her tray with a wash cloth. She also insists upon washing her own hands and face. Lately she has also insisted on washing her toes after every meal, which just leaves us scratching our heads in confusion.
After dinner we play. R demands that I color with her most nights, and I'm pretty happy to comply. Last week I discovered that the little preschool teacher had set up "centers" for me to do in her room. She drug me in (literally - she grabbed my hand and yanked me down the hall), and told me I had to play blocks. Then we moved on to Little People and then with wooden shapes. At least a few nights a week we workout together, and R loves to play "tunnel" and crawl through my legs while I do yoga.
R is forever inventing new activities for us to do while she is in the bathtub. She remains obsessed with nursery rhymes and songs, and we spent a lot of time chanting and singing. She thinks it's hilarious to play "This Little Piggy" with my toes. Her favorite song for the tub is the "Meow, Meow" song from the old cat food commercial, and Jeff has made it clear that we do sound like a couple of dying cats, especially with the echo of the bathroom. Lately she has also been "cooking" for me in the bathtub, using plastic bowls and Elmo's back brush as a spoon to make me peach yogurt and oatmeal. (Her ideas for food, of course.)
The rest of the routine has not changed. Following her bath, she eats a snack, we read four books, she brushes her teeth, and I took her into bed. I then clean up the house, walk the dogs, and get ready for another day of fun!
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