A Day In The Life Of … Me

If 5 years ago, you asked me what a typical day in my life would be like, I would tell you something like this:

The ROSY picture

I get up in the morning while the baby sleeps and make a dash to the gym. I come home to find the baby just recently woke up and we cuddle. We go downstairs and I make breakfast while she plays on her own. We eat, go for a walk to the park where she runs around with her park friends. Then, after so much fresh air, we’re ready to come home, play, make lunch and nap. During her 2-2.5 hour nap, I catch up on chores, crafting, TV and reading. After the baby is up, we watch a few cartoons, have a snack. I would then make dinner while the baby happily played on her own. Everyone eats and Evan and I can converse about our days. Once tucked safely into bed at 8:00 PM, we can rest up and catch up before doing it all again.

The REAL picture

You see, we never really know what to expect from such major changes in life as parenthood. In reality, I don’t have time to go to the gym and Sophia doesn’t nap for 2 hrs, and she certainly doesn’t go to bed at 9. Without much further adieu…

Here’s a day in our life (Weekday Edition)

6:00 AM: I wake up, creep out of bed and shower

6:30 AM: I am showered, dressed and downstairs. I take my breakfast & cup of coffee to go and head out

7:00 AM: I am at work.

4:00 PM: I head out of work, rushing to get home at or before 5:00 PM. This is sometimes tricky as I have to stop and pick up necessities like raisins (Sophia’s favorite snack) or milk.

5:00 PM: I am home. Sophia has attached herself to me and I cannot do anything but play with her.

5:30 PM: Dinner-time. Sophia eats dinner and then watches cartoons while we eat dinner.

6:15 PM: One of us cleans up the kitchen and the other plays with her.

7:45 PM: Bottle

7:55 PM: Bath

8:20 PM: Books

8:30 PM: Cuddle/sooth to sleep

9:10 PM: Sophia finally asleep

9:10 PM: <begin parental rest time>

10:00 PM: I am beat, and head upstairs to bed.

Here’s a day in our life (Weekend Edition)

8:15 AM: We are all awake (we sleep until Sophia wakes us).

9:00 AM: Breakfast

10:00 AM: Play-time with Sophia | walk | activity like the zoo, going into town

— the parent who is not occupying Sophia is on cooking/cleaning/laundry duty —

11:30 AM: We are back home and are starting to prep lunch. Evan preps while I entertain/feed Sophia.

1:00 PM: I put Sophia down for a nap and quietly creep downstairs to craft, watch tv, read, … relax.

1:45 PM: Sophia is awake and I quickly decide that 45 minutes is not enough for her OR me. I pick her up and hold her for another half hour or so.

3:00 PM: Sophia is awake. Snack-time, cartoons, active play. We play hide and seek and we dance. Sophia loves to build with legos with papa and play with dolls with me. She asks papa to sing and asks him to draw Mickey Mouse. I am asked to draw butterflies. We read books and she likes to follow along with her finger as I read to her.

4:00 PM: We start to get dinner ready. Encourage Sophia to self-occupy while monitoring to make sure our walls aren’t her canvases for toddler art.

5:30 PM: Dinner-time. Sophia eats dinner and then watches cartoons while we eat dinner.

6:15 PM: One of us cleans up the kitchen and the other plays with her.

7:45 PM: Bottle

7:55 PM: Bath

8:20 PM: Books

8:30 PM: Cuddle/sooth to sleep

9:10 PM: Sophia finally asleep

9:10 PM: <begin parental rest time>

10:30 PM: I am beat, and head upstairs to bed. [I spare an extra half hour on a weekend … I would stay up longer but at 23 months, she still does not sleep the night].

All in all, there is no such thing as coming home and collapsing on the couch or piling up with a blanket, a pillow and General Hospital or any other tv show. Evan and I are very mucho on all the time. Things that I thought I could manage to get done, I cannot. That said,

I wouldn’t trade this for the world.