The Everyday

Dear Luke,

Life is made up of the everyday, so I want to take a snapshot of what a typical day looks like for us.  Lately you've been waking up ravenous sometime around 5am, so I feed you and put you back to bed.  I go back to sleep myself, sometimes through hearing you talk in your crib, then wake you up again at 8 to officially start our day.  After feeding you, I change your diaper, give you your Vitamin D drops, and change you out of your pj's and into whatever your first outfit of the day is (some days you make it all day in the same outfit, but this is kind of rare. :)  Then we come downstairs and you hang out in your jumperoo for a few minutes while I get my breakfast together.  I eat with you in the study while you have some tummy time.  We are supposed to do an hour a day and I try to get 20-30 minutes in the morning during this first stretch since you seem to tolerate it best early in the day.  Then you might have some time in your exersaucer while I get ready or lay on the floor outside the laundry room while I start some laundry.  We lay on the floor in your room and read a book together before you take your first nap of the day starting between 9:30 and 9:45.  You don't eat again until 11:30 or 11:45, but lately you've been waking up around 10:30.  You are usually content to talk to yourself for awhile and sometimes fall back asleep.  If you aren't falling asleep after 20-30 minutes and are fussy, I might put you in your swing downstairs while I work on other things.  Then after you eat, you play in your jumperoo or sit in your bebe pod on the island while I get lunch together.  Some days Daddy comes home around this time and he can see you for a bit, too, which is nice.  You have more play time (tummy time, activity mat, reading, standing, talking) before laying down at 1.  Your afternoon nap is usually your longest.  You eat again between 3 and 3:30.  We do more of the same and I usually give you 15-20 minutes of independent play time (I lay you on one of your activity mats where I can see you, but I don't interact with you) before you lay down again at 4:30 or 5.  This nap is almost always short, so you usually play in your jumperoo while I make dinner or clean up the kitchen.  I feed you at 6:30, then some nights we offer you a little rice cereal while you sit in your bebe pod.  You haven't fully taken to it yet, so we are just trying every few days or so.  Daddy and I usually sit at the table and eat while you're in your swing near the table, or we take turns eating.  Daddy gives you a bath every other night and we put you to bed between 7:30 and 8.  Of course there's lots of variation to our typical schedule.  We have church Sundays, small group Tuesdays, you'll run errands with me and go to the grocery store, we will go out to lunch with friends, and you'll hang out in the Bjorn to help me vacuum.  You're my buddy and I love you!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. Here we are reading in your room one ordinary morning. :)