Henry wakes up every morning at 7:15. In my coma, I hand him his monkey to play with. When he gets bored with that I hand him my bottle of vitamins to shake. Then comes the butterfly toy and then the fishy. Once he’s played with all of those I wake up and give him lots of hugs and kisses. We smile and coo at each other and he sits on my stomach while I bounce him up and down singing 1990’s house music “boom boom boom, everybody say way-o, wayoooo”.
Then I change his diaper, let him look out the window and sometimes we rock in the chair while I sing something stupid and silly. He still likes Christmas songs the best. By then it’s 8 AM and we go to the living room to play with his toys. He digs all his toys out of the basket and I sit beside him. I usually hand him stuff like the little piano and xylophone and since he can’t eat them he moves on pretty quickly. He LOVES to look in the mirror and laugh at himself so I took my full length mirror off the wall and laid it horizontally on the floor. What else....we play our baby version of catch. We sit facing each other and I roll the ball to him and he slaps at it frantically and somehow it gets back to me. Overall though I think his favorite thing is to sit in my lap while I read his books to him. He likes “Fun with Frog” and “My peek-a-boo book” the best. I read both of those to him probably three times a day, everyday. He gets so excited when I whip those out, I guess because he recognizes them.
He takes nap number 1 at 9 o’clock. I rock him for anywhere between 1 minute and 15 minutes and then he sleeps for exactly 40 minutes. I could set a timer to it. That’s usually when I take a shower or check my email, eat, get ready for the day etc. When he wakes up I feed him breakfast. This usually consist of baby oatmeal, apples, pears and/or bananas, crushed with a fork into his oatmeal. Recently I’ve introduced Cheerios so he can get practice picking small things up with his fingers. He LOVES cheerios time. He tries to grab as many O’s as he can and shoves them all in his mouth at once. I think of the 20 O’s I pour out in front of him, he gets about 4 or 5 in his mouth. The I give him a cup of water and he gulps at it, spilling most onto his lap. When he does get a good mouthful he usually spits it out and then reaches for more. He can down a 4 oz cup of water, but probably only gets 1 oz.
Next we change into our outfit for the day and go on outing number one. This is either a library story time, play-group, or an errand like grocery shopping. We come home by 11:45 to nurse and join daddy for lunch. Lately lunch has been a smooched up avocado and some yams. I’ve experimented with yogurt but it’s too sour for him. He likes all fruit so I try to mash up whatever we have.
Then 1 0’clock comes and it’s time for nap number 2. This time he sleeps for about an hour and a half. I usually read next to him or I also take a nap. When he wakes up we go outside and jump in the jumper if it’s nice, or we use the inside one. I nurse him and then we’re off to outing number two.
This is either a park, a friends house, or an errand or two. Or someone comes to our house to play.
4:15 daddy comes home! Henry and daddy have some play time while I have some me time. At 5:00 daddy begins to make dinner while I nurse Henry. We play in the kitchen till dinner is ready. By this time Henry begins to get cranky. If he has something to hold or feed himself, he is content, but otherwise he’s real frustrated with me spoon feeding him. We just discovered whole wheat crackers and that’s pretty amusing. But his dinner meal is usually small and J and I scarf down whatever we can before Henry has a full blown melt-down. He’s completely worn out by 5:45.
Then we have our bath, if it’s a bath night (we rotate, every other night).
After our bath (which he loves---he likes splashing, eating his ducky and sucking the water out of his wash cloth) J rubs lotion on him and puts him in his jammies. Then he lies down with me while I nurse him. If he’s really tired he’ll fall asleep nursing after about 15 minutes. If he had a late afternoon nap then he’s not as tired and he likes to roll all around the bed babbling and smiling and talking to mama. He gets tired after about 30 minutes of rolling and passes out. He stays asleep till around 10 (sometimes 11 or 12) and then he wakes up to nurse. I change him and he sleeps next to dad till around 3, (sometimes 4 or 5). Then I nurse him again and he falls back asleep till 7:15 and he’s up for the day. He really likes to wake up at 7:15. It’s weird how he knows, but every morning…7:15.
That’s pretty much our weekday routine. I’m pretty happy with it and he seems to be too.
In other news, Henry has very recently developed what must be separation anxiety. He fusses the second I am out of his sight. It doesn’t matter if his dad is with him either. He reaches for me if I am not sitting within a foot of him. It’s kind of funny but I know the novelty is going to wear off pretty soon. I tell him he has a crush on me.
