Daily Schedule: Little R at 18 Months

It's that time again! (I did others at 4 months, 8 months and 12 months). There's some variation now, as R goes to school twice a week (I'm increasing it to three times starting next week), but otherwise this is a pretty typical day.

7:30 B's alarm goes off, waking me. R is still silent so I hide under the covers and gloat in the rare glory of getting to stay in bed longer than him.

8:10 R is making noises. I get up and go into see her. She is standing in her crib, giving me directions about changing her diaper. She's probably been awake for a little while, but typically she will quietly amuse herself in the crib for 10-30 minutes before summoning me (partly because I never fetch her before 8 unless she is screaming).

8:10-8:30 I change R's diaper: a huge poopy mess. Then I nurse her (she usually nurses twice a day now). She doesn't finish though, because B comes in to say goodbye and she gets distracted. Daddy is so much fun!

8:35 B leaves. R stays in her room organizing stuff, reading books, and playing with her toys. I get dressed, put on makeup, brush my hair and generally get ready. Then I go into the living room and look at the Internet.

9:00 R comes out to see me. She asks if she can watch Dora (No.) and then goes to play with her toys instead. I start making coffee and getting breakfast ready.

9:10 R is bored of playing. It's time for breakfast!

9:15 We eat. R has Cheerios with raisins and whole milk, I eat rice cakes with peanut butter and jam (because we don't have enough Cheerios for two people). She will only eat with a spoon now, so it takes her a long time. I read while she eats.

9:45 R is done eating. I know this because she starts trying to dump food on the floor. I wipe off her hands and face, dust off the Cheerio bits, and take her to get dressed for the day.

9:50 I dress R. I give her two outfits to choose from: today it's a white ruffled top and khaki pants.

9:55 R is dressed, fed and cleaned: we are officially ready to start the day.

10-11 R amuses herself while I do laundry, dishes, clean up the mess from breakfast, look at the Internet and do some crossword puzzles. I try calling my parents but they aren't home (it's early evening in the US).

11 R is getting a little bored, so she starts climbing on me as I sit at the computer. We watch her beloved Gummy Bear video twice: she is obsessed with it and would probably watch it 50 times in a row if I let her. But twice is enough.

11:10 Time to go out. I cycle the laundry, change R's diaper, pack the diaper bag, put R's shoes on (she picks the white ones), and stick her in the stroller. Then we walk to the mall.

11:30-12:15 At the mall. I go to the natural foods grocery store (for fancy chocolate for me and juice packs for R) and the regular grocery store. I rather disapprove of buying these juice packs, because I think R should eat regular people food. But she loves them and can eat them without making a mess, so they are the perfect on-the-go snack. She gets one now to give her something to do while I shop (she dislikes both the stroller and grocery shopping).

12:15 Shopping is done and stowed in the stroller. R and I go out to lunch at a cheap Italian restaurant (Pastamania) because I like it and B doesn't.

12:45 Lunch is over. R and I have to take a taxi home because it's pouring (when it rains here, it pours and you can get drenched in a couple minutes).

12:50 We are home. I unpack the stroller, put the food away, and change R's diaper. Then I nurse her (because she didn't finish eating before and I am uncomfortable).

1:10 R is in bed sleeping. I go to my computer: banking stuff, bill payment stuff, correspondence, planning the activities for R and I for this/next week. I look at some fun websites too.

2:15 R is still sleeping. I start the ironing.

2:45 Ironing is finished. I fold some clean clothes and cycle the laundry.

3:00 R is still sleeping. I do some more crossword puzzles. Then I read my book about Poland.

3:40 R wakes up. This was a longer nap than usual: she is probably tired from our trip to Kuala Lumpur.

3:45 I get R up. It's time for us to go out.

3:50 We catch a taxi. R sits in the middle with a seatbelt on (sometimes she will do this, though usually she prefers to sit on my lap instead). She amuses herself by playing with my purse and wallet.

4:15 We arrive at our destination, a play gym. This one is basically a very large padded room with different large toys (exercise balls, scooters/toy cars) and play structures (slides, padded tunnels) scattered throughout. R runs around exploring and getting other children to push her on the toy cars. I talk to the other mothers there (it's a scheduled meeting at the play gym, so I know a bunch of them) but must watch R carefully. This isn't because I am worried for her safety. It's because she and the other children are not yet socially reliable (meaning when left to their own devices, pleasant social interaction is only sporadic). I break up a couple tug-of-wars over toys, prevent a spoiled 3.5 year old from bullying R, make sure R doesn't smush a 7-month-old through clumsiness and over-enthusiasm, etc. At some point R gets hungry and comes to sit next to me and have a snack (animal crackers and another juice pack). Then she goes back to playing.

5:10 R is tired of playing and many of the other children have left. It's time to go home (R lets me know by getting our shoes out of the cubby and bringing them to me).

5:20 We are in the taxi after only a short wait (yes! at this time of day the wait can be as long as 30 minutes).

5:35 Back at our complex. We wander around the common area so R can examine everything (this means I follow her around as she explores, so that I can interfere whenever she does something unsafe/forbidden/rude). She spends a long time watching some older Japanese boys play some card game (the Japanese version of Magic? They were speaking Japanese only so I wasn't sure).

5:55 We go into the apartment. R immediately wants to watch the Gummy Bear video again, so we do, three times. Then she watches a little bit of Dora.

6:25 R is bored of Dora (it's a bad episode, about Christmas. I know because I usually watch all of them with her, even if I sometimes cheat by reading simultaneously.). It's time to go anyway. I change R's diaper first.

6:30 We leave to meet B for dinner.

6:45 We go out to Taiwanese food with B (he's leaving for Japan tomorrow and thus didn't have time to cook. I don't cook ever.). R is fussy so we have to amuse her instead of conversing. Once the food comes she's displeased because 1. it's too hot and 2. she wants to use chopsticks to eat it, like we are doing, but lacks the necessary skills. Eventually the food cools down and she deigns to use a spoon instead, so I get to enjoy my dinner after all.

7:30-7:45 We walk home together chatting. B says goodbye to us in the elevator as he has to go out to do more work.

7:50 I skip R's bath tonight (this is usually her father's responsibility) and just change her diaper and dress her in her pajamas. We read three books together (Blueberries for Sal, Go Dogs Go and a book my parents got in France), then diaper Baby (a doll of Zora's: she loves dressing/diapering/feeding it) and put her to bed. Then we collect R's necessary night-time objects (the elephant feely, a water bottle, a stuffed rabbit).

8:10 I nurse R and put her in bed. Lights out, air conditioner on, and curtains closed. She goes right to sleep.

After that, I blog, look at the Internet, finish the laundry, do the dishes, tidy the house, and read about Poland some more. If B were home I would go to the gym also. Bedtime is at 12 midnight so that's a fair amount of personal time, really. R almost always sleeps through the night, so I won't hear from her until tomorrow morning.