Daily Schedule

Eating breakfast this morning: no more high chairs!

Recently I've started working on a baby scrapbook for Beatrice, something I've been meaning to do since she was born fifteen months ago. I've been using this blog to look up photos and dates (when was it she first smiled? At four weeks? five?), using it as a sort of digital baby book.

But most of these blog entries are dedicated to holidays, milestones achieved, or special events like family visits and vacations. Since this blog is now officially being used for record keeping, I thought I'd add her daily schedule on a regular, non-special weekday like today.

9:30am Wake Up.*

Diaper change, get dressed. She loves helping get herself dressed and undressed. The first thing she does every morning is greet the dogs: "Hi dogs!"

9:45am Breakfast.

Some of her favorite breakfast foods include fruit, scrambled eggs, string cheese, Joe's O's, quiches from Trader Joes, yogurt, cottage cheese, and vanilla mini waffles from Whole Foods. Breakfast tends to be her biggest meal of the day (probably because she spent the last fifteen hours beforehand asleep).

10am-12:30pm Morning outing.

Every day we try to go somewhere fun. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we go to the baby gym with Miller and Jack. On Wednesdays we've just started going to a "pre-preschool" class hosted by Pasadena City College. Other days we might go to a music class or concert, to the park, to the zoo, to an indoor playground or children's museum, or to the Americana shopping mall.

12:30pm Lunch.

Some of her favorite lunch foods include soup; cheese toast; pasta; fish sticks, soy meatballs, edamame hummus, chicken shu mai, and chicken nuggets, all from Trader Joe's; quesadillas; turkey sandwiches; pizza; and tacos. But really she'll eat anything. Occasionally we'll eat lunch out on the go - either I'll pack something for her or we'll eat at a restaurant (like Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill, where kids eat for $1).

1/1:30pm Nap time. Diaper change.

Sometimes she'll sleep two hours, sometimes three, occasionally four. I spend this time writing, cleaning the house, starting dinner, checking email, etc.

3:30/4pm Wake up. Diaper change. Small snack - milk, water, or juice, with fruits or vegetables, crackers, cheese, pita chips, etc.

4-5:30pm. Afternoon outing.

Usually these outings are just errands to places like Target and Trader Joe's, but sometimes we'll try to incorporate something fun, too. Today we're going to Costco to pick up some photos I printed and then to a hardware store to get a key made - FUN!

5:30-6pm. Quiet play at home.

By this time she's winding down and getting tired and/or winding up and getting fussy. We play in her room or outside in the yard. Activities might include the water table and the sand box outside, or puppets, puzzles, books, or coloring inside (though we're still working on the whole "not eating the crayons" thing).

6pm. Dinner.

Her dinner foods are pretty much the same as her lunch ones but she eats much less at night. Sometimes Dev will be home early and then we can all eat the same meal together. Usually, though, I make her a separate dinner to eat now and make dinner for me and Dev when he gets home around 8pm.

6:30pm. Bath time. Brushing teeth, combing hair, changing diapers, putting on pajamas.

7/7:30pm. Story time. Bed time.

Bed time can be as early as 6pm, though, if Beatrice has been sick, is in a particularly fussy mood, or missed her afternoon nap.

BUT, I used to read sample baby schedules on websites like Babycenter when I had a new infant and they always seemed so regimented. What if you were traveling, or had visitors? What if there was something really fun going on in the middle of nap time? Dev and I are big believers in flexibilty, so none of these things are set in stone. For example, we might decide to take her to the Americana's Bhangra Night and let her stay up until 9pm dancing to Indian music and eating french fries and cupcake icing. Because you're only young once.

*I know, I almost didn't add this one because I knew other mothers would hate me. She's a good sleeper, what can I say? She makes up for it by being very, very high-energy when she's awake. Specifically, she used to have two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Then in January of this year, she just started combining her night sleep with her first nap, so now she usually doesn't wake up until 9am at the earliest - she's been known to sleep past 11am, or more than sixteen consecutive hours. But before feeling too jealous of me, check out what she's like when she's awake.