My final week: a day in the life...

...of my stay-at-home-mom period.  So I don't forget.

Almost every one of my days in the last 2 months has started between 7:30 and 8:00am when Emerson starts cooing, crying, waving her hands wildly at the monitor camera (I swear she knows we can see her), or pulling on the octopus legs to make it burble or sing.  I had almost daily intentions of waking up at 6am in order to get a few things done first, most importantly walk my attention-starved dogs, but that rarely actually happened.

So I make my way to Emerson's room where I find her in various positions in her crib but always watching the door and usually with a big smile on her face.  We kill a little time rocking and saying good morning until the fish clock strikes 8, at which point we head to the kitchen to make a bottle.  Measure the formula, boil the water (I think it tastes better boiled in the tea kettle rather than run hot from the faucet), inject the iron and head back to her room where she sucks it down.  Next we play in her room for a bit where there are plenty of toys to choose from - she has some wooden puzzles that keep her very busy - and one or several of our furry friends usually stop in for a visit.  She has been working on crawling, usually motivated to get over to a cat or dog to pull on their fur or to hijack my phone (often with my mom's voice on the other end).

Breakfast is around 9:30 and she must have a banana each day. Yesterday I showed up at the table without a banana and although she was enjoying her oatmeal, she stared pointedly at the bananas on the other side of the kitchen until I righted the breakfast wrong.  And for the record, we watch Regis and Kelly during breakfast every day. There, I admitted it.

We work very hard to fit a nap in between breakfast and the noon bottle.  She really does not like naps but her daddy can usually coax her to sleep (by napping himself).  Mid day goes by rather fast: bottle at noon, playtime, lunch around 1:30, errands, bottle at four, more playtime.  We have dinner at 6 and all eat at the same time. And, yes, we still have a pretty significant eating-out habit that, unfortunately, Emerson has not hindered in the least.  She loves checking out all the people around her in restaurants and charms waiters with her big toothless grins.

At 7:30 we have a bath. We meaning me and Emerson.  In China it was a necessity and I can't give it up.  Daddy takes her from the bath, gets her ready for bed, gives her a bottle and she is usually fast asleep by 8:30.  And, although it's hard to tell, these days are sweet but exhausting!  Brian and I hit the sack shortly after that, and usually get to snooze through the night. If she wakes before 2am, Brian's on duty and my shift starts at 2am. 

So, all this is going to change next week.  Wish me luck.


Here is a shot of morning playtime in her room: