An average day

This is what an average day looks like:

7ish - Bertie wakes up.  I let him hang out for a few minutes, unless he's screaming.
7:15ish - We get up, if he's wet through I change him, otherwise I wait a few minutes, because he's grumpy when he wakes up.  (I wonder where he gets that from...?)  I get his milk and we sit in the recliner and watch the news for a few minutes.  He likes the traffic report, and the weather.  And the commercials.  Then we usually will read a few books before demanding "gargoons" (cartoons).
8ish - I turn Thomas the Train on Netflix.  He half watches, and half plays with his toys.  I do my yoga (or whatever exercise).
8:45ish - We sit at the table and eat breakfast.
9:15ish - I put away the dishes and clean the house a little.  Bertram will usually colour or play with chalk for a bit, then play with his trains or cars more.  After a while he usually says "sit here" (the recliner) "mommy read book".
10ish - We head out and do whatever we're going to do for the day, usually errands: groceries, etc.  Sometimes we go to the mall and walk around (especially if the weather is bad).
Noon: We are back home.  Sometimes he has lunch before nap, sometimes not.  Typically he'll have a small snack, and more milk.  We sit in the recliner and read a few more books.  I sing him his nap time song:

It's time for a nap, it's time for a nap.

You will feel so much better after a nap.

After a nap, after a nap

We will have more fun after a nap.

Sometimes the last line changes, if we have something specific planned.  (We will go see grandma, after a nap).

He will sleep 1.5-3 hours.  I clean up, do dinner prep, laundry, sit around, and enjoy the quiet.

2:15ish - Bertie wakes up.  We have a little more milk, or water.  Read a few books. Then maybe a snack, or he'll just play.

4ish - He will usually request that we go to Grandma and Grandpa's house (two doors down).  Which means he wants to go play, and for me to leave him there.  He often will stay there until Aaron gets home at 5:30.  So I clean up again, and get dinner ready.

5:30 - Aaron comes home, we have dinner.

6:00 - Sometimes baby gets a bath, depending on how gross he got at dinner.

6:20ish - We walk the dogs.  Bertie usually goes back to grandma and grandpa's, but sometimes he comes too.

7:15ish - We start getting ready for bed.  Jammies, milk, more books, brush teeth, have fluoride (or vitamins).  We sing a few songs, then say prayers.  Then we go around a say good night to each of the animals (Juli, Zelda, Fiona and Priya), then good night to mommy and daddy.  Then we sing the bedtime song as we go to bed.

7:40ish - (to the tune of "let's go out to the lobby")

Let's all go to bed

Let's all go to bed

Let's all go to bed, 

and get ourselves some rest.

Now it's time for bed, 

Now it's time for bed, 

Now it's time for bed, 

time to go to sleep.

We tuck him in with his favourite bears (Charlie and Blue), and pull up his two blankets (only because it's winter, not because it has to be two).  He'll usually say "tuck in. night-night".  

A fun day

For Christmas Bertie got a 10-visit pass to Billy Beez.  We went for the first time today.  We got there a few minutes after it opened.  He was so excited, and was pulling me to go in, while we were waiting in line.  We got our wrist bands, and went to put the diaper bag in a locker.  Then away we went.  Up and down the ramp, in and out of a million tunnels, over the cargo nets, and down various slides.  I'm short enough, that I could follow him all around without having to duck.  But I'm guessing I'll be sore tomorrow.  The slides were really fast, he went down most of them on my lap.  We played from 10-11:30 then had a snack, then played more.

Around 12:30 he said wanted lunch, so we left (we had re-entry in case we wanted to go back).  This was the first day I ditched the stroller, and tried out his baby leash.  It was not a success.  He tried to wander away, and then just laid on the floor and asked to me carried.  He's getting heavy! (Almost 25 lbs).  He said he wanted cheese for lunch.  I thought we'd go to Hot Dog on a Stick.  They have cheese on a stick, and veggie hot dogs.  But when we got to the food court, it was gone.  (I just looked at the mall's website, and it moved, really close to where we were.  D'oh!)  We walked back, and went to the bakery, and got cheese bread.

He was about done after lunch.  We headed home.  I put him down, and he fell asleep really fast.  I did some dinner prep, and mostly watched SVU.

When he got up, we watched Thomas the Train (I hate that show).  And played for a bit, before going to visit grandpa, while I finished dinner.  After we all ate, we all played together in the living room. It was a pretty nice day.

Significant Concerns

I was thinking about different worries I've had through my life.  I think I've always been an anxious person.  Some of my anxieties were normal, some were less normal.

• Monsters (after a nightmare at age 3)
• Tornadoes (some time around age 4)
• A throat culture (only one, my dad had to take me back later in the day)
  (The next few all came about around age 6)
• Having to check on my baby sister, to make sure she was still breathing
• Unplugging everything I could reach, for fear of fire (then having to check again to make sure I'd actually unplugged them)
• Locking doors (then (again) double, triple checking to make sure I'd done it)
• Wetting the bed (I wet the bed once around age 6, and then worried for a long time that it would happen again.  So I'd make sure my bladder was really empty a few times before bed).
•  Turning the lights off and on (Somehow I got the idea that some combination of the lights (specifically the hall light) being turned off and on would signal aliens, and they would come and abduct me)
• Being picked up late (anytime my parents were late picking me up from something, I'd start to panic, and assume that something terrible had happened)
  Moving on to tween/teen years and beyond
• Drugs (I remember being worried about middle and high school, and people offering drugs all the time) (I was actually so anxious about drugs, I never tried anything.  I kind of wish I'd tried pot, or gotten drunk in my younger days).
• People being late (Once again, assuming something terrible had happened.)
• Losing my wallet or phone (even now I check/double check to make sure they're where they should be)
• People following me (sometimes I'd think I was being followed while driving).
• Leaving the straightener on.

I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.  I'm better now.  I don't have the OCD issues like I did before.  I'm still anxious, but probably only a little more than the average person.

This and that

Starting January 1st I went meat-free again.  Aaron and Bertie are doing mostly meat-free,  Bertie doesn't really like much meat anyway, so it's not hard for him.  I had a proud mommy moment today.  We went to the mall and were getting lunch while we were there.  I asked him if he wanted a burger (veggie burger, as we were sharing), a salad or rice and beans (Chipotle).  I was sure he'd choose the burger or Chipotle (he loves rice and beans).  He chose salad!  He didn't want much of the lettuce (probably because it very lightly dressed with a vinegrette), but he ate lots of edamame, chickpeas and lentils.

On January 1st I also cut out Diet Coke and all sugar (sweets, syrup, jelly, sugar cereal, fruity yogurt etc).   So far, this is only for January.  But I'll evaluate when the month is done. It's been so hard!  I had a terrible headache the first two days.  No more headaches, but God, I want sweets and diet coke.

We adopted our new three-footed kitty on Sunday.  She hitched a ride with a couple from Scotts Valley.  She's small, and hobbildy.  We went back and forth on names.  Aaron said "What about Priya?"  So she's call Priya.  She hasn't been introduced to the rest of the house yet, but we're getting there.

Bertie went bowling for the first time last night.  He was very uncertain at first, and didn't like the pins falling down.  But he got the hang of it, then really wanted to keep playing.  His final score was better than mine! I think I'll take him again during the day sometime.