It usually goes like this....
7:30 am, starting to hear those mumbles coming out o Chloe's room. In my head I think "If I roll over and act like I didn't hear it, she will chill out for another 45 minutes or so, more sleep time for me." Proceed to roll over feeling relieved that it is not a weekday....
7:45 am, Chloe is hollering something, the words unintelligible, I assume it is something along the lines of "I know you're in there Dad, I'm just going to keep on hollering till you free me from this cage!" Time to wake up I think..... Gotta make sure Tracy doesn't get away with sleeping either! One smack to the ass follows... :-) (Sorry hun, we know we do that to each other all the time, have to admit it...)
7:50am, tote the kid downstairs, get a new diaper on her. Wish to myself there was some switch that would turn on a potty-trained mode.
7:55am, Turn on Playhouse Disney, this channel will be on for a while. we may sneek in book or 2 every now and then, but mostly the television. The guilt typically sets in telling myself we should be doing something far more fulfilling than this, sometimes, I switch up, most of the time, I don't....
8:30, "Kid-O" makes a dash to the Kitchen, hollering something, the kid speak filter turns on, and I start asking the questions like "You hungry?" or "You want something to drink?" She typically pulls the fridge open and shows us what she wants.
8:45, trying to eat my bowl of cereal, Kid-o no longer has any interest in what she was munching on, she now absolutely has to have whats in my bowl. For the tens of times I have probably said no, this time a yes is typically okay. Were sharing Cookie Crisp the rest of the way to the bottom of the bowl...
8:47, Chloe wants something from the counter that there is no way in hell she should have, those lips sag in the ends, and the tantrum is about to ensue. Here comes the yelling!
8:50, Yeah she's over it, already giggling again while watching the Wiggles.
9:00, Tracy will start running a list of all the thing that we absolutely have to get done, either for that day, or for the next 3 weeks, and adamantly describe how little time we have to get them done. This must typically raise my blood pressure a few notches every time.
9:10-12, A mix of Playhouse Disney, Finding Nemo, and Madagascar. I miss watching the Today show, or even the news! My internal dialogue speaks "Who is president again?, oh thats right..."
12:15, time to put the kid down for a nap, she usually doesn't put much of a dispute up over it. One bottle, one blanket, turn on the CD Player in her room that has a bedtime music running, some mix of classical, give her a smooch on the head, she won't be up for more than 15 more minutes....
12:30-3, work feverishly cleaning the house with Tracy, washing dishes, vacuuming, picking up the utter destruction Chloe has made of the house.
Between 3-4, Chloe is rumbling upstairs, she is up, and clearly fed up with being stuck in the crib.
4-6pm, That TV is on again, what a shock, she pulled the Wiggles video out of the pile I thought I hid, "Damn that Jeff, he's always sleeping... damned him indeed"
6pm, Tracy is getting ready to make dinner, still tending to the Chloe, I get in front of the laptop for a few minutes to check email, only to have her tug me out of the chair and back to the floor, where she is holding a book to ready. Back to more movie time...
7pm, the in-laws appear (if they weren't here the day before...) This buys me a few moments to do whatever I wanna do.
7:30, Get that bottle ready, time to prep Chloe for bed.
8:00, Get Chloe to bed
8:01, Give her a kiss, tell her I love her
8:02, Give Tracy a kiss, do my best to tell her all that I appreciate about her and what she does for the family
8:03, Go get a Corona Out of the fridge, sit down, and enjoy some real television.
8:45, try to find the ambition to do any of my side projects, Servers, Trixbox, DD-WRT
8:46, realize that I am a friggin lazy shit, find out if I have another cocktail for me in the fridge.
8:47, Outta beer, back to pop.
9:00, Get in another Netflix, that has been sitting on the DVD player for way too long..
11:00, Ponder bedtime...
11:01, Do bedtime
...Sunday, ditto.....
It's not a bad routine, but sometimes it feels like I should really try to do better.
