Daily Schedule: R at 2 Years Old

That Wife did another of her DITL posts (where she records everything she did during one day) and this reminded me to do my own: it's time again! (I did others with R at 4 months, 8 months, 12 months and 18 months). This was a pretty typical weekday.

8:00 My alarm goes off. R isn't awake yet, so I turn it off "just for a few minutes".

8:45 I wake up. Yikes, I've overslept! I hustle out of bed and get ready (contacts in, hair brushed, yoga clothes on). This takes about 5 minutes. Then I go into R's room. She is awake already, and has obviously been for some time. She is almost always awake by the time I get her. She likes just relaxing in her crib for long periods in the morning, reading, playing little games with her toys, or just staring at the ceiling thinking deep thoughts (all activities I've "caught" her doing).

9:00 After a diaper change, I prepare breakfast for us. This is Cheerios with whole milk (which she eats almost every morning) and a cup of berry yogurt (usually I give her fresh fruit instead, but we were out). I eat Cheerios too.

9:20 Usually R takes 30 minutes to eat breakfast (she is a very slow eater). Today she's pretty quick. I'm glad because we are running late. I clean her up and dress her (this takes about 5 minutes) and it's out the door to school.

9:30 We arrive at school and I drop R off. She hugs me goodbye and runs off to check out the latest activities. The first half hour is just free play, which is good because school actually starts at 9. We are often late as R is not an early riser (and neither am I).

10:00 I arrive at yoga class, which is taught by a Indian friend of mine at her house. The other students today are sisters from Syria (one is blonde and blue-eyed, because they are wealthy: rich people the world over are quite fair).

11:45 Yoga is over. I feel relaxed and stretched. I can't stay for coffee today though, because R will be getting out of school soon.

12:15 I arrive back home, where I wait for R to arrive on her school bus. She takes the bus home every day (she doesn't take it in the mornings due to the late rising thing).

12:25 R arrives. She is very excited to show me her latest art project, a paper Easter egg that she's painted.

12:35 Lunch is ready. It's cheese toast (one of R's favorites, just cheese and bread toasted in the oven until the cheese melts) and apples. I eat a bacon sandwich with lots of mayonnaise: R tries some bacon but she doesn't like it (too salty?).

1:05 R finishes lunch. Now it's nap time. I change her diaper and clean her off. Then I read her stories (up to 3, depending on my mood), which she picks. Today it's Freight Train and two of the Nutshell Library ones. She listens to all of the text closely, which is unusual.

1:15 R is in bed, if not asleep. She falls asleep pretty quickly today: often she will have conversations (with herself? or Ami?) for up to 30 minutes.

Now I change out of my exercise clothes, wash my face, put on makeup, etc. Then I start housework. I clean up lunch and breakfast (since I didn't have time before), sweep, pick up all the toys and B's stuff (I love him but he's a horrible slob and creates at least as much mess as R), do laundry and most time-consumingly, the dishes. We have no dishwasher and bad water pressure, so it takes longer than I would like. In general household tasks take longer in Singapore, because they are typically done by maids (and thus Singaporeans have no incentive to adopt time-saving devices: dishwashers and dryers are not standard here).

2:15 Now the house is all tidy. Time to read Outliers.

3:30 I stop reading to rotate the laundry, fold it, and put it away.

3:45 I look at the Internet for a few minutes.

4:00 Time to wake up R. If we don't have plans, I let her sleep until she wakes up, but at least a third of the time we have commitments. I change her diaper and clothes (which are dirty from school and lunch).

4:10 Off to our playdate. If R isn't eating first, leaving the house is pretty simple since I always leave the diaper bag packed.

4:30 We arrive at the playdate. Today we are dying easter eggs. R isn't that interested: mostly she wants to go play with the new toys. One of the children at the playdate is a little punk: he grabs something out of R's hands and gives her a big bruise when they are playing in the other room. This is tiresome because now I have to follow R around to make sure she is not further abused. This works for R, if not for the other children: the toddler attacks all of them, including biting one to draw blood. I am glad R is not aggressive.

5:45 The hosting child begins to melt down (partly because he was the one bitten, perhaps?). It's time to go home.

6:05 Arrive home. R plays by herself, then plays on the iPad with her father. Despite her apparent lack of interest in dying eggs, she is terribly excited to show them to her father, jumping up and down with glee as he admires them. Then he starts making dinner, so she wanders back and forth between the kitchen ("helping") and the living room where her toys are. I do some more reading.

6:50 R is tired of playing, so she requests a show. I put in a Dora DVD and keep her company while she watches.

7:15 Dinner is ready. Good bye Dora!

7:25 We eat Weisswurst, green salad with vinaigrette and olives, and cooked black beans with onions (and cheese, for B and R). R also has one of her eggs (which she accidentally dropped while bringing to her father). She eats all her sausage and egg and some of the beans (she hates lettuce but I hope if I keep serving it to her she will get used to it).

7:27 R is feeling cranky. She wants to leave the table early. She does, and then has a tantrum because I am still eating (and she wants my attention). I tell her I will only talk to her if she's sitting at the table because it's dinner time, and then ignore her.

7:35 We're done eating. Time for R to have a bath. She and her father go into the bathroom. I tidy her room and put away the stuff from dinner.

7:50 R is ready with pajamas and brushed teeth. She kisses her father goodnight, and I take her into her room. There I read her four stories (three as planned, and then one more as a bonus because she asked: I want to make her feel like she has influence over her environment). She picks these too: pictures of animals, pictures of babies, Something Else (love this one) and Wave.

8:05 R is in bed. I turn off the lights and shut the door (she doesn't sleep with a nightlight).

8:25 I change into my exercise clothes and hang around for a little while to make sure she's asleep. Then I go to the gym (our condo complex has an onsite one).

9:00 Back from the gym. B leaves for the gym now while I do some data entry for his latest project.

10:05 B is back so I am off duty. I do the dishes from dinner and make sure everything's tidy, then blog and look at the Internet. Then some reading, a shower, and off to bed.