A Typical Day

Daniel shows Daddy a new way to use his paci

Daniel and I have gotten into a pretty good routine now that he's a big boy of 14 months. Most mornings he wakes up between 8:30 and 9 am (after a sleepy bottle at 5:30 from Daddy). We have breakfast and then play in the front living room for two hours while I catch up on email and my favorite sites. His favorite toys right now are the pillows from our couch (he loves to cuddle in them), any and all books (big smile from Mommy), his doggy, ball, popper (upright toy that makes a popping sound as he walks it around), and his toy laptop. He also loves to rip up paper from his box of magazines. On Wednesday mornings, we head to the library for storytime.

Around 11, he has a sippy cup of milk (he's almost completely weaned off bottles, he only has one for his early morning milk. I'm so thrilled that I still have frozen breast milk for him. I vastly overestimated how much he needed when I was pumping, so that even though I hung up the pump October 22, I still have enough for another month!). Then it's off to bed. Other than a few off days, Daniel goes right to sleep or will sing or talk to himself for awhile before nodding off. He usually sleeps for two hours (!) while I work out with a DVD and then the treadmill. Most days he's still asleep when I jump in the shower.

Then it's lunch time. After we got back from Holland, Daniel was over his "all veggies all the time" kick and now he's all about string cheese and yogurt. He'll also have mac and cheese, pieces of turkey or PB & J. Depending on the day, we'll either play in the living room again, work on some household tasks (with Daniel usually holding on to my leg and/or talking to me the whole time), or run errands. We still have Daniel's seat facing the back, and plan to keep it that way until he's at least 18 months. Even being tall, he fits pretty comfortably, just crossing his legs a little bit.

Between 2:30 and 3, Daniel has another sippy of milk (he always has a sippy of water available) and then it's time for another nap. For the last four months, he's taken a two hour afternoon nap as well--I LOVE that he sleeps so much--but this nap is sometimes as short as an hour now. I check my email again and then start thinking about supper. We're still trying a lot of new recipes, but are also making a lot of favorites from last year. This is when I pull out all the non-refrigerated stuff, and try to remember to put any meat needed for the next day from the freezer to the frig. If my brain is working, I might try to do some chore.

After the afternoon nap is the hardest time of the day. When Daniel wakes up, he wants his DADDY! He is not pleased if he wakes up to me! This is when we do the most of our reading and singing. They are good engaging, distractions for him. If he's happy, I'll try to start supper. If not, it's yet another reading of "The Birthday Box" or one of his Dutch word books!

Niels usually gets home around 5:30pm. He then plays with Daniel while I work on dinner. Daniel will usually eat whatever we have, which is really nice. He's getting better about waiting for us to finish, but it's still something he's working on. Niels and I will often play Gin 13 while we're eating. It's been a good way for me to think about eating slowly, another trick as I'm working on getting fit this year!

After dinner, Daniel and Daddy have some boy time while I get some time to clean up the kitchen, work on some project, or relax online. On Tuesdays (a change from Wednesdays now that we've joined a Bible study), Daniel and Daddy continue boy time with bath time. Daniel loves bath time with Daddy. They get in our big soaker tub and Daniel loves to splash the water and play with his tub letters.

Around 7:30pm, Daniel has his last bottle before Daddy puts him to bed at 8pm. We're so blessed that he's a good sleeper. He definitely got that from his Daddy. He usually falls asleep pretty quickly, but if he's awake, he's usually talking to himself. The trick to getting to sleep for us has been to put all nine of his pacifiers in the crib with him. That way, if he wakes up, there's another one close by. He only gets the paci at bedtime (or naptime) and doesn't seem to ask for them at any other time. Funny thing: we can always tell when he's ready to get up because he throws everything out of his crib...and we do mean everything! First it's the plop of the pacis, then the thump of the teddy bears!

We are so thrilled and blessed by Daniel's sweet temperament. Other that his late afternoon meltdown (which still isn't even that bad), he's a very happy, content boy. He's full of smiles and loves to wave bye to everyone and everything. He loves to look in the mirror and points to the many pictures of himself he sees around the house. He's not talking much yet, though he understands quite a bit. I can put a ball, book, doggy, drum and blanket on the floor and he can correctly retrieve whichever one I ask for. He can clap his hands when asked, and will always clap after we sing a song to him. He is a delight and the love of our lives.