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Oct. 12th, 2006 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaAlex turned one and a half yesterday! I decided to mark the occasion by keeping track of "a day in the life," as I have occasionally done before. So here you have it:
7:10am: Hear Alex talking quietly on the baby monitor. Nudge Michael, because it's his turn to wake up with her.
7:40: Wake up and stumble to my computer to check e-mail and LJ.
8:00: Head downstairs. Alex has just finished a massive breakfast - two scrambled eggs, half a piece of toast, a handful of grapes, and some milk - and is delighted to be picked up and cuddled for a while. Check in with Michael about the day. Abruptly realize that the house painters are supposedly coming today, and flee upstairs to put clothes on.
8:15: Send Michael upstairs with his coffee. (He has also made me a cup of tea.) Read Alex a couple of books and watch her play.
8:30: Change a dirty diaper. Cajole Alex into letting me dress her (currently a major point of friction; she'd prefer to wear PJs all day) by pointing out that the zipper pull on her sweatshirt is shaped like a star. She instantly wants to wear it, but of course we have to put on pants and a shirt first.
8:45: First new household rule of the day: "No pen on chairs." Alex performs scientific experiments with Cheerios, two cups, and an inclined plane. I drink my tea and read a little from Woman of Valor, an account of Clara Barton's Civil War heroism.
9:05: Upstairs to shower, dress, and check the directions for our field trip plans.
9:17: Downstairs again. Michael has mostly packed the diaper bag - I throw in a few extras.
9:30: Our friend Emily arrives to pick us up. Install Alex's carseat in Emily's backseat, next to her daughter Zoe, and install Alex in the carseat.
9:35: Leave Baltimore City for what passes for the country around here; i.e., the far suburbs. Enjoy a rare opportunity for uninterrupted conversation, given that the girls are captive and entertaining each other.
10:10: Arrive at Clark's Elioak Farm, a children's attraction appended to what appears to be a real working farm. Mixed in with the farm-related attractions are structures from a 50's-era storybook theme park. We meet up with two other friends with toddlers, and spend a fair amount of time repeatedly sliding down a slide shaped like a giant rat.
10:30: Pay our admission and enter the farm proper. Visit the animal pens: goats, sheep, cows, pigs, donkey, miniature horses. Alex is enthralled. A few goats are wandering around free, and she enjoys playing with one tiny one until it rears up and puts its front hooves on her shoulders. Then she needs to be carried for a few minutes. Another goat eats a few strands of her hair when she gets too close to the fence. Alex doesn't care. We make animal sounds at the various animals, and are delighted when the sheep baaaas back.
11:00: We've signed up for a hayride. This entails sitting on bales of hay in the back of a large tractor-driven wagon, and being driven in a big circle around the farm. It's surprisingly scenic. Alex fusses about not being able to run around on the wagon while it's moving, but otherwise seems to enjoy herself.
11:20: Hayride over, we hit the "barnyard" - a large pen we are allowed to enter. Goats, chickens, and ducks are running around free, and there are rabbits in hutches. This is a huge hit with all the toddlers, who seem to be especially fascinated by the chickens.
11:45: Wash hands very, very thoroughly indeed. Load the car back up with two tired, cranky toddlers. Spend the trip home doling out snacks: goldfish crackers, raisins, dry cereal. Alex is convulsed with laughter when Zoe starts to fall asleep, and her giggles keep Zoe from dropping off. When Zoe finally manages to fall asleep, Alex tries, "Zoe sleeping. Wake, wake!" It doesn't work.
12:20: Arrive home and uninstall carseat while Emily holds Alex for me. Get everything inside. Change Alex's diaper and her pants, which are heavily crusted around the ankles with what I hope is just mud.
12:25: Carry Alex, her sippy cup of water, her stuffed dachshund, and her pacifier up to her room. She is pretty much instantly ready for her nap.
12:30: Check e-mail and LJ.
12:50: Go through the clothes Michael's father and stepmother bought Alex, and remove the tags from the things we plan to keep. (Alex has too many clothes already, but some of these are just too cute to return.) Bring down a load of laundry and put it in the machine.
1:00: Make myself some lunch: a grilled turkey-and-horseradish-cheddar sandwich, some carrot sticks, and blue corn tortilla chips. Eat while reading an unfortunately graphic part of the Clara Barton book.
1:30: Change the laundry over to the dryer, and carry the clothes that were in the dryer upstairs.
1:35: Work on some fairly tedious organizational stuff for the Long-Range Planning Committee at church.
3:00: Damn, that baby's been sleeping a long time! Stop with the LRP work because my head is ready to explode, and surf the net a bit instead.
3:20: Hear Alex talking to herself and bring her downstairs. She seems very sleepy, but cheerful. Change her diaper and put her back in the now-laundered pants she wore in the morning.
3:30: Make Alex's lunch, and vow - not for the first time - to start getting lunch into her before her nap. Give her some smoked turkey, cheddar cheese, peas, and whole wheat toast.
3:45: Second new household rule of the day: "No toast in milk."
3:47: "Milk is for drinking, not for playing with."
3:48: Move milk out of Alex's reach. At her request, help her put some meat on her fork, and some cheese on her spoon.
4:00: As I'm washing her hands and getting her down from the highchair, she points at the bookshelf and says with great excitement, "Eye eye eye eye eye!" "Show me?" I ask her, and then notice that half a face is visible on the spine of Memoirs of a Geisha. But no, Alex is heading straight for Issola. The book is pulled out a little so that all you can see of the front is the "I."
4:05: Change a dirty diaper. Talk Alex into her socks and shoes.
4:15: Leave for the neighborhood grocery store, three blocks away. Alex walks most of the way there, stopping at streetcorners to be picked up so we can cross. Sometimes she helps me push the stroller, until we are just outside the store, when I require her to get in. We make a whirlwind shopping trip, buying some bananas, a half-pound of raw shrimp, pretzels, peanut butter cup ice cream, and a 1.5-liter bottle of Concha y Toro Carminere.
4:35: Checkout time. The cashier peels a "Curious George" sticker from our bananas and gives it to Alex, who spends the first block of our walk home saying "Ooh Aaah!" - her interpretation of monkey noises. Somewhere along the line, she loses the sticker, and her narration switches to many repetitions of "Monkey go?" (i.e., "Where did the monkey go?")
4:40: The plastic shopping bags have twisted so tightly around my fingers that it's painful. Try to disentangle them. Drop one bag with a crash, and note, with dismay, the rapidly spreading purple stain around it. So much for the wine. Halfheartedly try to convince myself that, given my burden of stroller and other groceries and the difficulty of managing a bag of broken glass and staining liquid, it would be okay to leave the bag on the sidewalk. Fail. Awkwardly walk the rest of the way home, leaving a trail of wine behind me.
4:45: Set the bagful of wine and broken glass next to our front steps and carry Alex up. Appeal to Michael to help clear up the remains. Look for the foam squeezy cow that Alex wants to play with. Talk with Michael about church finance, with a special concentration on church finance asshattery.
5:00: Just pick Alex up and hold her for a few minutes, because she seems to want that. Then go out to reinstall the carseat while Michael and Alex go back to the store for another bottle of wine.
5:15: Start some advance prepwork for dinner, peeling and butterflying the shrimp and setting them to marinate in a little olive oil, lime juice, cumin, salt, and pepper.
5:30: Alex is agitating to go outside, and Michael doesn't want to take her because it's sprinkling. Offer to take her outside if he will grate cheese for dinner.
5:40: Back inside to finish supper. We are having shrimp and tomatillo quesadillas - except for Alex, who is having a shrimp-free quesadilla because we haven't introduced shellfish yet. Michael and Alex watch Blue's Clues while I cook.
6:05: Supper's on the table. Didn't Alex used to like avocados? Now she is horrified by the taint of guacamole on one tiny corner of her quesadilla. Babble fangirlishly to Michael about Clara Barton while we eat, and talk a little bit about our differing Civil War educational experiences.
6:45: Michael takes Alex upstairs for her bath. Sit down to check my e-mail.
6:50: Phone rings - it's Michael's father and stepmother. Fold laundry and talk to them for a few minutes. In the background, I can hear Alex SCREAMING while Michael washes her hair.
7:00: Sounds like the bath is over. Bring the phone in to Michael and take over getting Alex dried, diapered, and dressed in PJs.
7:10: Carry Alex downstairs, comb her hair, help/encourage/direct her put her toys away, and read a large pile of stories.
7:40: Bedtime for Alex. Almost as soon as I settle down in the rocking chair with her, she wants to go to sleep. I am back downstairs by 7:42, at which point I go online for a while.
8:30: Watch a couple of episodes of Season 2 House with Michael, interspersed with bits of the Tigers-A's game. Drink some wine and eat some extra-dark chocolate Le Petit Ecolier cookies. Mmm, red wine and dark chocolate.
10:30: Back up to the second floor. Surf a little, read a little, fold and put away laundry a little.
12:00: Bed.
NB: We have negotiated that I will take care of Alex all day on Wednesdays while Michael concentrates on job search-related activities. In case at any point you were wondering "Where's Michael in all of this?"
7:10am: Hear Alex talking quietly on the baby monitor. Nudge Michael, because it's his turn to wake up with her.
7:40: Wake up and stumble to my computer to check e-mail and LJ.
8:00: Head downstairs. Alex has just finished a massive breakfast - two scrambled eggs, half a piece of toast, a handful of grapes, and some milk - and is delighted to be picked up and cuddled for a while. Check in with Michael about the day. Abruptly realize that the house painters are supposedly coming today, and flee upstairs to put clothes on.
8:15: Send Michael upstairs with his coffee. (He has also made me a cup of tea.) Read Alex a couple of books and watch her play.
8:30: Change a dirty diaper. Cajole Alex into letting me dress her (currently a major point of friction; she'd prefer to wear PJs all day) by pointing out that the zipper pull on her sweatshirt is shaped like a star. She instantly wants to wear it, but of course we have to put on pants and a shirt first.
8:45: First new household rule of the day: "No pen on chairs." Alex performs scientific experiments with Cheerios, two cups, and an inclined plane. I drink my tea and read a little from Woman of Valor, an account of Clara Barton's Civil War heroism.
9:05: Upstairs to shower, dress, and check the directions for our field trip plans.
9:17: Downstairs again. Michael has mostly packed the diaper bag - I throw in a few extras.
9:30: Our friend Emily arrives to pick us up. Install Alex's carseat in Emily's backseat, next to her daughter Zoe, and install Alex in the carseat.
9:35: Leave Baltimore City for what passes for the country around here; i.e., the far suburbs. Enjoy a rare opportunity for uninterrupted conversation, given that the girls are captive and entertaining each other.
10:10: Arrive at Clark's Elioak Farm, a children's attraction appended to what appears to be a real working farm. Mixed in with the farm-related attractions are structures from a 50's-era storybook theme park. We meet up with two other friends with toddlers, and spend a fair amount of time repeatedly sliding down a slide shaped like a giant rat.
10:30: Pay our admission and enter the farm proper. Visit the animal pens: goats, sheep, cows, pigs, donkey, miniature horses. Alex is enthralled. A few goats are wandering around free, and she enjoys playing with one tiny one until it rears up and puts its front hooves on her shoulders. Then she needs to be carried for a few minutes. Another goat eats a few strands of her hair when she gets too close to the fence. Alex doesn't care. We make animal sounds at the various animals, and are delighted when the sheep baaaas back.
11:00: We've signed up for a hayride. This entails sitting on bales of hay in the back of a large tractor-driven wagon, and being driven in a big circle around the farm. It's surprisingly scenic. Alex fusses about not being able to run around on the wagon while it's moving, but otherwise seems to enjoy herself.
11:20: Hayride over, we hit the "barnyard" - a large pen we are allowed to enter. Goats, chickens, and ducks are running around free, and there are rabbits in hutches. This is a huge hit with all the toddlers, who seem to be especially fascinated by the chickens.
11:45: Wash hands very, very thoroughly indeed. Load the car back up with two tired, cranky toddlers. Spend the trip home doling out snacks: goldfish crackers, raisins, dry cereal. Alex is convulsed with laughter when Zoe starts to fall asleep, and her giggles keep Zoe from dropping off. When Zoe finally manages to fall asleep, Alex tries, "Zoe sleeping. Wake, wake!" It doesn't work.
12:20: Arrive home and uninstall carseat while Emily holds Alex for me. Get everything inside. Change Alex's diaper and her pants, which are heavily crusted around the ankles with what I hope is just mud.
12:25: Carry Alex, her sippy cup of water, her stuffed dachshund, and her pacifier up to her room. She is pretty much instantly ready for her nap.
12:30: Check e-mail and LJ.
12:50: Go through the clothes Michael's father and stepmother bought Alex, and remove the tags from the things we plan to keep. (Alex has too many clothes already, but some of these are just too cute to return.) Bring down a load of laundry and put it in the machine.
1:00: Make myself some lunch: a grilled turkey-and-horseradish-cheddar sandwich, some carrot sticks, and blue corn tortilla chips. Eat while reading an unfortunately graphic part of the Clara Barton book.
1:30: Change the laundry over to the dryer, and carry the clothes that were in the dryer upstairs.
1:35: Work on some fairly tedious organizational stuff for the Long-Range Planning Committee at church.
3:00: Damn, that baby's been sleeping a long time! Stop with the LRP work because my head is ready to explode, and surf the net a bit instead.
3:20: Hear Alex talking to herself and bring her downstairs. She seems very sleepy, but cheerful. Change her diaper and put her back in the now-laundered pants she wore in the morning.
3:30: Make Alex's lunch, and vow - not for the first time - to start getting lunch into her before her nap. Give her some smoked turkey, cheddar cheese, peas, and whole wheat toast.
3:45: Second new household rule of the day: "No toast in milk."
3:47: "Milk is for drinking, not for playing with."
3:48: Move milk out of Alex's reach. At her request, help her put some meat on her fork, and some cheese on her spoon.
4:00: As I'm washing her hands and getting her down from the highchair, she points at the bookshelf and says with great excitement, "Eye eye eye eye eye!" "Show me?" I ask her, and then notice that half a face is visible on the spine of Memoirs of a Geisha. But no, Alex is heading straight for Issola. The book is pulled out a little so that all you can see of the front is the "I."
4:05: Change a dirty diaper. Talk Alex into her socks and shoes.
4:15: Leave for the neighborhood grocery store, three blocks away. Alex walks most of the way there, stopping at streetcorners to be picked up so we can cross. Sometimes she helps me push the stroller, until we are just outside the store, when I require her to get in. We make a whirlwind shopping trip, buying some bananas, a half-pound of raw shrimp, pretzels, peanut butter cup ice cream, and a 1.5-liter bottle of Concha y Toro Carminere.
4:35: Checkout time. The cashier peels a "Curious George" sticker from our bananas and gives it to Alex, who spends the first block of our walk home saying "Ooh Aaah!" - her interpretation of monkey noises. Somewhere along the line, she loses the sticker, and her narration switches to many repetitions of "Monkey go?" (i.e., "Where did the monkey go?")
4:40: The plastic shopping bags have twisted so tightly around my fingers that it's painful. Try to disentangle them. Drop one bag with a crash, and note, with dismay, the rapidly spreading purple stain around it. So much for the wine. Halfheartedly try to convince myself that, given my burden of stroller and other groceries and the difficulty of managing a bag of broken glass and staining liquid, it would be okay to leave the bag on the sidewalk. Fail. Awkwardly walk the rest of the way home, leaving a trail of wine behind me.
4:45: Set the bagful of wine and broken glass next to our front steps and carry Alex up. Appeal to Michael to help clear up the remains. Look for the foam squeezy cow that Alex wants to play with. Talk with Michael about church finance, with a special concentration on church finance asshattery.
5:00: Just pick Alex up and hold her for a few minutes, because she seems to want that. Then go out to reinstall the carseat while Michael and Alex go back to the store for another bottle of wine.
5:15: Start some advance prepwork for dinner, peeling and butterflying the shrimp and setting them to marinate in a little olive oil, lime juice, cumin, salt, and pepper.
5:30: Alex is agitating to go outside, and Michael doesn't want to take her because it's sprinkling. Offer to take her outside if he will grate cheese for dinner.
5:40: Back inside to finish supper. We are having shrimp and tomatillo quesadillas - except for Alex, who is having a shrimp-free quesadilla because we haven't introduced shellfish yet. Michael and Alex watch Blue's Clues while I cook.
6:05: Supper's on the table. Didn't Alex used to like avocados? Now she is horrified by the taint of guacamole on one tiny corner of her quesadilla. Babble fangirlishly to Michael about Clara Barton while we eat, and talk a little bit about our differing Civil War educational experiences.
6:45: Michael takes Alex upstairs for her bath. Sit down to check my e-mail.
6:50: Phone rings - it's Michael's father and stepmother. Fold laundry and talk to them for a few minutes. In the background, I can hear Alex SCREAMING while Michael washes her hair.
7:00: Sounds like the bath is over. Bring the phone in to Michael and take over getting Alex dried, diapered, and dressed in PJs.
7:10: Carry Alex downstairs, comb her hair, help/encourage/direct her put her toys away, and read a large pile of stories.
7:40: Bedtime for Alex. Almost as soon as I settle down in the rocking chair with her, she wants to go to sleep. I am back downstairs by 7:42, at which point I go online for a while.
8:30: Watch a couple of episodes of Season 2 House with Michael, interspersed with bits of the Tigers-A's game. Drink some wine and eat some extra-dark chocolate Le Petit Ecolier cookies. Mmm, red wine and dark chocolate.
10:30: Back up to the second floor. Surf a little, read a little, fold and put away laundry a little.
12:00: Bed.
NB: We have negotiated that I will take care of Alex all day on Wednesdays while Michael concentrates on job search-related activities. In case at any point you were wondering "Where's Michael in all of this?"
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Date: 2006-10-13 02:22 am (UTC)