Tuesday, June 11, 2013

A Day in the Life

Okay, here goes...

Monday morning. 

David woke up wanting breakfast and I was not ready to get up yet (read: went to bed at 2:00 again). I fed him in bed waiting for him to drift back to sleep, and he suddenly popped up, spotted Andrei, and started chatting. Finally I took him out to the living room to keep trying. After he was full and his eyes were closed, I tried to sneak back into bed with him, but the next thing I knew, his eyes popped open again and he started crawling around again. At one point our heads collided and I got upset and Andrei took him out of the room.

Morning, take two.

The next thing I knew, a few hours had passed and Andrei and David were still out in the living room. I hurried in to give Andrei a break, but they were sleeping on the couch...oops. David immediately popped up and started crying as though I had betrayed him. I whisked him away to do a diaper change and he screamed the whole time. He has this aversion to being on his back, go figure.

Several attempts at breakfast

I'm trying to have David join us at the table for meals, but if he is eating puree while we're eating, I keep being interrupted to monitor the mess. I gave him a few "tester" spoonfuls of a fruit mixture and he seemed to like it, so I poured out a whole helping and figure it would keep him busy for awhile. SPLASH! The spoon was on the floor in a matter of seconds, and suddenly the bib was off and flying to the floor, too. I had yet to take a bite of my delicious breakfast that A. had prepared. I tried putting the bib back on David but it was clear he was done, and was requesting to be released from his high chair. We went into the bathroom, got washed up, I settled him on the floor with toys, and sat in my seat....right on the dirty bib. Noooooo! I had to go change my clothes and THEN got to eat my breakfast.

After tea/coffee and a planning session, Andrei went to our home office to get some work done, and I finished my tea and offered D. a last chance at puree before dumping it. This time, he finished it off...go figure. Then I had to wash both of us off again.

Going for a walk

Getting some fresh air was high on my list today. However, it took us nearly an hour to get ready...sigh. Andrei had to step in and help several times, and David almost fell asleep at one point, so I was ready to change the whole plan, but then he woke up again. Since I got him dressed first, he was "cruising" around in too-big jeans, and fell and hit his head. Then, finally, we were off, with Andrei waving to us from the window as we went around into the courtyard.

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A cloudy day...perfect. Seriously. Since there is so much light these days, a sunny day can really be a scorcher.

We headed to the playground in our courtyard and found it empty, except for an old lady sitting on a bench squinting at a book. I started to do laps along the gravel with the stroller, trying to get D. to fall asleep. He was lying there blinking, fighting sleep as hard as he could.

Meanwhile, I looked over and saw a man lying on the pavement. He was right near the front wheels of a car, with his head sticking out into the road. Some women were nudging him and he showed signs of life, but waved them away. I wondered if I was supposed to be a Good Samaritan, but I figured the women had it covered. Andrei's general policy is to wake them up and ask if they're okay. Usually if they're drunk they ask you to leave them alone, and then go back to sleep.

A few minutes later, a little boy came towards the playground on a little motorized...car. I don't know how they work, are they electric? Anyway, it was making a noise like a wind-up toy, so I moved away a bit and continued doing laps on bumpy ground. Finally the boy's mother came along too with a baby buggy, presumably housing a younger sibling. Now the playground wasn't quite as deserted. Also, a huge black dog with no collar was wandering around. I didn't think it was theirs, but no one else was around.

David was asleep, and the sun was coming back out. I tied the arms of my sweatshirt over the stroller handles to give him more shade, and we headed to another location.

The "River" Bank

Across the street from our apartment complex is a body of water, some sort of river/pond/swamp. Along the embankment is a sort of tree-lined "alley" with benches. It's next to the main road, but the trees give it some shelter, and mothers often do laps there with strollers. I saw some lily pads in bloom, but the water was also covered with a lot of pollen/algae, so that sort of ruined the Impressionist resemblance. I also saw a few duck families and thought about how it would be fun to show David when he gets older, provided he doesn't try to jump into the water or whatever.

I found an empty bench and sat down to meditate for a few minutes and write a grocery list. It was getting towards lunchtime, so I didn't have time to do a full journal/prayer/reading session, but the busy street wasn't really conducive to that anyway. Sometimes I really long for a solitary place, but I know we are privileged enough just to have our own apartment and live in a fairly quiet neighborhood.

Lunchtime

David must have had a pretty good nap, because he woke up smiling as we rolled in the door. Or maybe he was just excited to see Daddy! Andrei took him into the office with him as I got lunch ready. Lunch and tea took a pretty long time because we talked for awhile afterwards. David ate a little food and made a mess again. Once released, he pushed his highchair around the kitchen, always on the brink of having a major collision/fall.

It was almost 6 by the time we got finished with lunch!

The rest of the "day"

So we'd had breakfast, gone for a walk, and had lunch...and now it was early evening! That was fast.

David started playing in the washing machine, so I had him "help" me put a load of laundry in. We also did a tiny bit of clean-up in his room, and then we decided to take a bath. That baby food really gets stuck in his ears! And he also hates if we touch his face, so taking a bath is the only way to really get it clean!

I tried putting him in the high chair with an apple slice while I got a head-start on dinner, but he was done after two bites and asking to get down. Oh well!

Andrei to the rescue

Andrei took David on a walk while I fixed dinner. That was a relief! I find it very hard to multi-task when it comes to cooking. I was about to let them know that it was time to come in, when I noticed it was raining. Oops! Andrei was prepared, though, with the stroller cover and an umbrella. I was glad that they got some fresh air anyway.

David had gotten sleepy on the walk and needed some extra cuddling during dinner. He seemed conflicted over what he wanted, though. He wanted to be in my lap, but not held, or something.

Then there was the temper tantrum over his final diaper change. I tried to snuggle him as much as possible and help him have a gentle transition, but he was still pretty sad when Daddy took him away. :(

Almost 1 am...

2.5 hours later I am still planning on "getting to those dishes" any minute. With David not really napping at home during the day, I always seem to have a pretty big list of things to do before bed. Right now I have to go hang the laundry, and brush my teeth.

2 comments:

  1. It's always so fascinating peeping into another girl's life. Thank you for the privilege of a peep! I've trying to squish studying into life with working these days, which makes life ... FULL. Sometimes my days are a bit confused too! :)

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