As we near near the middle of December, K and I are finally starting to get into a routine. I have been taking some time off from work since just before Thanksgiving and I am spending 2 full days a week with him as well as 3 afternoons (he is still in preschool/daycare 3 days a week, 6 hours a day). I’m doing some consulting which is what I use those childcare days for.
K is 20+ months now and growing and learning more each day. I love getting to see how much he changes in such a short time.
On our full days together, our day usually goes something like this (this is what happened today):
6:30-7:15 – Wake up time. I get K from his crib and bring him back for snuggles and nursing in our bed.
7:15-8:00 – Hang out together in the living room, read books, snack on some berries, drink coffee or tea (me) play with cars and trains and ramps, etc… while we both fully wake up.
8:00-8:30 – B gets up and hangs out with K while I start on breakfast. We usually have some combination of eggs, yogurt, bacon or veggie sausage, toast, fruit, or oatmeal. Today we happened to have scrambled eggs on english muffins with melted cheese. K just had the eggs and a yogurt.
8:30-9:00 – Breakfast time. B leaves for work somewhere between 9-9:30 and then it’s just me and K.
9:00-10:00 – Straighten up the house, get dressed and ready for the day.
10-11:45 – My cleaning lady came today so I let her in and walked her through what needed to be done. Then we went for a walk to the main street in Hoboken (Washington Street) because I needed to pick up a few presents. After that we went to the playroom in our building and played with toys for a while.
(In the morning we usually do an activity such as: walk to the park, cook something in the kitchen, draw with crayons or finger paint, read books, play with trains some more. If K is entertaining himself I might get into some heavier cleaning, organizing, reading, or do work of some sort.)
11:45 – 2:00 – We headed into the city today to meet up with B and another couple (our former neighbors) plus their ten month old little girl. We ate lunch at BCD Tofu House in Koreatown. I got the Bibimbap lunch special which also came with a small soondofu seafood soup. K fell asleep for a few minutes at the start of lunch but was awake the rest of the time. He ate a lot of fish and rice.
(K usually naps from 12:30-2:30 or so.)
2:00-3:00 – We headed back to Hoboken, stopped at another store to pick up another present, and came home. I took a short work call that ended in K crying (because his car fell off the table) and then I nursed him briefly to get him to take his nap. It worked.
3:00-5:00 – K naps. I work, write this post, answer some emails from my lawyer (we’re in contract on a home out in central NJ), and will probably try to get in a little bit of reading. Sometimes I do a work out video or take a nap myself during his naptime.
5:00-6:30 – I prep dinner, K plays with various trains, puzzles, cars. At this point I will sometimes put on Little Einsteins for him so I can focus on cooking. We are doing Blue Apron so I cook that three nights a week; the other four nights I will either make something simple like pasta or we’ll order in or go out with friends. If B cooks he likes to make something more interesting than my simple meals. Sometimes K “helps” me in the kitchen on his Learning Tower. I chill out and read if there’s time. Tonight’s dinner is Spiced Pork Chops with Charred Poblano Salsa & Sweet Potato Mash .
6:30-8:00 – We hang out, dinner is usually ready around 7 (which is when B normally gets home), then we eat and have more storytime after dinner.
8:00-9:00 – B does bedtime routine – bath and then bed. He sits with K until K falls asleep (which sometimes happens in 5 minutes and sometime a lot longer).
9:00-on – If I’ve managed to stay awake this long, B and I will hang out and maybe watch something on Netflix (sometimes while eating ice cream). (I have NOT been able to stay awake lately due to the fact that I am – surprise! – pregnant again, so this does not happen often… what usually happens is I pass out on the couch or in bed just around when K does. By the way, I am nearing 13 weeks now and my due date is in late June.)
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I give major major kudos to those who are stay at home moms. The job of being a mom is way harder than the job I had when I was full time in the office. I am treasuring it now because I will go back to work at some point in the near future!
Would love to hear your ideas for activities to do with a 20 month old. They are so inquisitive 🙂
Until next time!
($79) (ours is in red) – called a “sassy seat” by some; it replaces a high chair. It’s super convenient and not just because we live in a small apartment. The “lobster” claws hook onto the table and you screw them in to tighten. It’s easily transportable and way sleeker looking than any high chair I have ever seen. It does come with a tray to protect the table but we always forget to use it. It’s one of the things I had on my registry that I continue to recommend to people.
($46.19) – I will caveat that this doesn’t hold a TON of books (and we have a ton), but it’s a great storage system that kids can actually use themselves. Kurt can see the covers of his books and pick the one he wants me to read. He can also put the books away which is totally the best part.
($10.91 for 4) – Okay these are possibly my favorite invention. I tried a few different baby proofing solutions before I found these but these are just the best. I use them on all my lower kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, the front door (!), and the panels on my wall heaters that cover the switches (otherwise Kurt will turn the heat on full blast in July). I first got the 4-pack and then reordered in a 12-pack. A must have once baby starts crawling.
($22.99; you can also get this at Whole Foods but it’s more expensive – IIRC about $30) – I exclusively breastfed and pumped for Kurt until he was one, but then I replaced my pumping with formula and Kurt really took to this one (it’s the first and only one I tried). Unfortunately the company is not US-based and there isn’t a Kabrita baby formula that’s been approved by the FDA (yet) but this toddler formula was great for us (it still is; Kurt still has a bottle each night). They also make goat milk fruit pouches but Kurt does not like them at all.
($38.32) – we have two of these and we blocked off our living room/dining room area to keep Kurt in one area which is mainly baby proof. So helpful not to have baby going into the kitchen and getting underfoot!
($42.74 for 2 month supply) – so this is something for mom, but worth including anyway. During pregnancy and breastfeeding your body loses a lot of its own mineral stores and continuing to take prenatals even after giving birth can be really important! These ones are very high quality and I’ve felt great taking them.
($68.51) (this is the one for after the infant stage but before booster) – Kurt outgrew his infant seat pretty quickly and we ended up getting this Evenflo model for the next carseat. It’s inexpensive and a little smaller than some of the other models out there but we really really like it. We don’t have a huge car and to be honest, almost none of the other models would even have fit in our back seat (when I told this to the guy at Kids R Us he – unjokingly – told us that we should just get a bigger car – wtf?). This car seat can be used for rear facing (in our state, NJ, you should stay rear facing until you are at least 30 pounds or 2 years old) and then front facing when kiddo is ready. We are keeping Kurt rear facing until he’s two even though he just broke the thirty pound mark in the last month or so… it just seems safer that way.
($34.99) – We loved this sleep sack. I got the medium (6-18 months) and was able to use it for all of Kurt’s first year. It’s great because babies do tend to kick off blankets (and you don’t even really want blankets near them anyway in case of smothering) but they don’t kick this off and in fact Kurt liked it. I got the Mocha Heather color because it’s gender neutral and could be used for another kid.
($2.99) – You do need a small set of baby nail clippers for those tiny soft nails. I got these as an 
add-on and they’ve lasted 20 months now. I don’t use the magnifier on them (it doesn’t have to be used) but it does look cool.
– We love this 100% fair trade bubble bath. We like Lavender, Coconut Chamomile, or Coconut Strawberry flavor. It’s all natural and Kurt loves the bubbles! An added bonus – all sales of Alaffia products contribute to empowerment projects to help break the cycle of poverty in Togo.
