It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “day in the life” post.  This one isn’t quite as detailed (the last one had actual times) but still has plenty of photos to let you know what a day in my life looks like.

Morning.  Wake up, make the bed, and get dressed.  Ignore my (and my mom’s!) advice about getting dressed and putting your shoes on.  Stay in comfy slippers made by my sister-in-law, Becca:

Next step, turn on the heater and warm it up a bit in here.

Next, a glass of water and my multivitamin.  I would much rather start with a cup of tea, but I make myself have a full glass of water first.  Sometimes, this means that I don’t get my tea for a good hour… or two.  Other times it means that I get in 15 minutes.

A quick check of email while drinking water…

Then, put the computer back on my desk and do a quick start on Joe’s breakfast.  He’ll be up soon.  I put some sweet potatoes and kumara on to boil.

Just to be safe, I put a piece of bread into the toaster.  If the sweet potato isn’t ready in time (so that I could make sweet potato pancakes), then there’ll be toast to tide him over.

Meanwhile, I open up the shades.  It’s not exactly light out, yet, but it’s too dark with the shades down and I like being able to see outside.

The world is waking up, and so is Joe.

Just after 7am!

Up, and already on the move as soon as he’s out of his sleeping bag.

No, he’s not yawning in the above photo.  He’s yelling!  It’s as though he’s saying, “Hooray!  I’m awake!  Yay for today!”  And then, before I can change his nappy, he’s off into the hall and has shut the doors behind him on his way to the lounge.

It’s not long before he realizes that he’s in the lounge alone, and he can’t open the doors now that he’s shut them.  Fussing ensues, I save the day by opening the door (so easy to be a hero to a 13 month old!), change his nappy, get him out of his jammies, and set him back on his course of discovery.

He checks out his toys and indulges in some serious (but short) play time before brekkie.

Straight for the piano, naturally.  The boy loves those keys!  Yet another winning selection from the toy library.

The sweet potato issn’t ready, so it’ll have to be toast points with peanut butter and wildberry spread for starters.

Sweet potatoes are done and mashed, then put into pancake batter.  This is an egg-free, dairy-free, sugar-free recipe.

Pancakes on the skillet while Joe (happily!) makes his way through the toast.

Pancakes done.  Time to try them!

Lifting it up for a bite…

Thinking about it…

Uh, yeah… not to sure about those sweet potato pancakes.  Joe and I had a bit of a difficult breakfast.  He kept throwing pancake on the floor.  I haven’t exactly been sure what to do in this scenario with the new, slightly-picky-about-his-food version of Joe.  Usually, he would only throw food on the ground if he was done eating but now he’s doing it a lot.  Like, he won’t even try food (or will only try one bite) and then flings it to the side.  I think he likes to see it airborne.

I decided to try something new.  If he threw food on the ground, I reminded him that we do not throw food.  If he threw it again, I cleaned him put and put him down by his toys.  He was not happy about that one bit.  No siree.  He cried and I told him he could come back over and eat more if he wanted, but no throwing food.  He came back over, I put him back in his highchair, and he ate another bite.  Then, he started throwing them on the ground again (and again, and again – he was literally just picking them up out of his bowl and tossing them) so we did the same routine: tell him that we don’t throw food, and if he threw it again clean him up and put him down by his toys.  Joe did the same routine, as well: crying and walking back over wanting to eat.  I did it one more time – back into the highchair, Joe ate several more baby pancakes, and then finished his last toast point.  Or almost finished it.  He had another 2 or 3 bites remaining, looked over at me, dangled it over the edge of the tray… and grinned.  Cheeky bubby!  I told him not to drop it, reminded him that we do not throw food, and he threw it down.  Not dropped it – threw it.  I had to duck my head so that he wouldn’t see my smiling.  He is so ornery!  I cleaned him up and he was happy to be put by his toys and start to play.  There were quite a few sweet potato pancakes remaining.

I put away the pancakes while Joe made his morning rounds.  He has to inspect stuff to be sure that things are as he remembered.

Yep – these drawers still open!  And they’re still full of stuff!

Time to inspect the dehumidifier.

Oop – found his ball!

While Joe kicked his ball around, I emptied the dishwasher, re-loaded it, and tried to make myself a cup of tea: my one caffeinated beverage of the day.

“East Frisian Sunday Blend” in my find from City Mission.  I love this teacup.  Or mug.  Or whatever.

Unfortunately, I was only able to drink about 3/4 of the cup as I was preoccupied chasing after this guy:

It’s hard to get a clear shot when he’s running everywhere!

Thank goodness – it’s time to head out for Mainly Music.  We are both ready to get out and burn up some energy.

We had a lot of fun at MM.  This was our second visit and while I normally am not a really outgoing, going out kind of person, I’ve found that having Joe has made me stretch my boundaries.  It’s so much better to be out doing things than to be in our apartment.  Joe is still pretty clingy these days, but he warmed up within about 15 minutes and was wandering around, walking up to other kiddos and mums and enjoying the singing.  At one point, Joe went up to another mum who looked a lot like me (you know what I mean – tall, blonde, gorgeous… ha!) and he sort of stared at her, then he poked her leg a few times, and then he raised his arms up in the air and burst into tears, fleeing from her and running straight toward me.  It was as though he was thinking, “You kind of look like my mom… are you my mom?  You’re not my mom!  Where’s my mom?!”

We had morning tea while we were there, and then left for home so that Joe could have lunch (and get his nap!).

Lunch was a quick and easy one: spinach quesadilla with carrots, corn, and peas.

Joe was a fan, but tired.

While Joe plowed through his lunch, I made myself a quick cuppa: cranberry and apple herbal tea with a bit of cinnamon added in, for flavour.

To tea.  Always to tea.

Joe went down for his nap (hooray! love that boy, but love his sleep-times, too!) and I cleaned up the kitchen.  Again.

How is it possible that the counters get so dirty in only a few hours?!

I finished my tea, read and sent some emails, paid a bill or two, and then looked up possible uses for the kumara that was starting to turn south in our pantry.  Came upon the idea of potato rolls, only turning them into kumara rolls.  Researched a few recipes, then jumped right in!

Left the dough to rise for an hour and then – surprise! – my friend Alisa called and was in town with time to kill.  She came on over for some (more) tea and brought muffins to share.  I love friends, and I really love it when they bring chocolate-berry-nut muffins.

I had to punch down the dough during our visit, then separate it into individual rolls.

It was a great visit.  Joe slept the whole time and we were actually able to have a chat.  Just as the door closed behind Alisa, Joe started to rouse.  Perfect timing!

Of course, he had a serious case of bed hair:

It’s getting so curly!  We played for a little while and then it was time for Joe’s afternoon tea.

Eating some homemade carrot cake muesli bar.  And loving it!

While Joe snacked, I put the rolls into the oven.  Joe finished his muesli bar, I scrubbed him and his highchair down, and we turned up the music!

We listen to all sorts of music around here.  This particular day you could hear anything from  the Beatles to Burl Ives 🙂

Meanwhile, the rolls baked and then -ding – they were done!

I was glad the recipe turned out.  I subbed several ingredients and experimented a bit to try to make them a bit healthier.  I wanted to add some wholemeal flour but I’d already messed with it so much that I didn’t want to push my luck.  The recipe yields 45 rolls (good grief), so some of these went right into the freezer once they cooled.

Joe was getting fussy right about then.  He’d had his sleep, had his afternoon tea, and was now ready to go exploring once again.  The boy is an energizer bunny.

I put on his jacket and got my bag ready to head on out for a walk.  Joe was climbing the stairs by the time I had my keys out.

“Let’s go!”

We ended up at the library.  Joe is such a goober.  He practically ran into the library, then made a bee-line for the computers.  I took him to the children’s section and he thought that we were playing some sort of game.  The name of the game?  “Get to the Computers”!  Our library has several computers set at child level.  They’re definitely not baby-proof but they’re the perfect height for young children.  Or toddlers.  Joe would go right past the blocks, the books, the trucks, and then giggle uncontrollably when I grabbed him ’round the middle and hauled him back to the baby area.  We played that game a few times before I eventually decided that any attempt to play in the library was a wash.  And Joe’s laughing was getting louder and louder – cute, but not too cute for the other patrons :-/  We packed it up and headed back home.

Joe didn’t mind too much.  We played hide-and-seek in the lounge, though our version of hide-and-seek involves lots of roaring like a lion 🙂

Chris called a bit later on and let us know that he was coming home.  Did we need him to pick anything up?  Nope – but Joe wanted to chat.  I set the phone to “speaker” and he talked to his daddy.

Joe has come to associate these phone calls with Chris coming home.  And when he can’t see his daddy right away?  Well, this is what happens:

Ridiculous!  He just wanders around, saying da-da-da and crying.  He usually goes to the door once or twice and just stands there, looking at it and then looking back at me as if to say, “Why isn’t he here?!”.  He’s only been doing this for the last 5 or 6 days, but it’s getting to the point where I think it would be best to not let him talk to Chris on the phone and just have Chris surprise him.  So sad!

Anyway, everything’s better once Chris is home again:

Seeing dad for the first time since going to sleep the night before.  A happy reunion 🙂

Joe had a quick nappy change and then “the boys” went for a short walk while I finished dinner.  While they were out, I started the cloth nappies on a soak.

Nappies.  Ugh.  Not one of my favorite jobs.

On to dinner.  Tonight we had hoki fillets with garlic, lemon, and pepper with a side of green beans and kumara rolls.

Joe was having a hard time at dinner, similar to when he was eating breakfast.  He saw the rolls and that was all he wanted to eat.  They’re healthy, but not healthy enough to work as an entire meal!  Sorry, Joe.  He kept throwing the fish on the ground, then the green beans.  I know that he’s still figuring things out and that his tastes are developing, and I know that mealtime are also times to experiment, but it’s hard not to be frustrated when I see the food that I just worked on being tossed overboard.

We did the same routine as at breakfast: telling Joe that we don’t throw food on the ground, then taking him out of his highchair and cleaning him up when he continues to do so.  There’s no drama – just, “we’re done”.  Joe came back over and I offered him some more food, which he was interested in.  So, he went back into his highchair and then he ate the rest of his meal.  He ate the fish, ate the green beans… still had a few moments of throwing food over but we worked on it.  I know that he’s only 13 months and I don’t expect him to understand everything or sit in his chair, eating as though he’s at a fine restaurant.  But when he immediately throws the food over the edge of the tray, not even bothering to taste it, then I know he’s either not interested in eating or pushing his boundaries.  If he’s not interested in eating, then fine – he can play and it’s not a drama.  But if he’s pushing his boundaries, well, I want him to know that boundaries do exist, even for a 13 month old.  I don’t expect him to eat like he’s an adult – throwing some food over now and again isn’t a big deal – but not trying anything and only reaching and pointing for the rolls is another story.  I don’t know.  I’m still figuring this parenting thing out.  Whatever the case, he seemed happy in the end and ate his fish, chomping it down and shoving the green beans into his mouth.  And last but not least, he ate his roll 🙂

After dinner, Joe got down and started to play.  Our after-dinner routine is either a bath or play time.  The bath was last night so this evening he just ran around the lounge and back and forth between me and Chris.  He was happy to have both of us lying on the floor.  We try to make a point of focusing our time and attention on him in the evening before bed.  He goes to sleep early – usually 7pm or a bit sooner – so there’s time for us to do other things later in the evening.

Joe started to peter out after a little while and Chris changed him into his overnight (read: double-lined) nappy and I started to clean up the kitchen a bit more.

Chris brought Joe out into the lounge, all ready for bed with his PJs on and his sleeping sack nearby.  We finished getting Joe into his nighttime gear and then sat on the couch together, reading him, “Hairy Maclary’s Hat Tricks” and snuggling with him.  After a read or two, it was time for bed.  Joe snuggled into his cot with his sleep sheep playing white noise and drifted onto dreamland, with only 1 fussy moment on the way there.

And now, a moment to sit down.  I finished the second half of the muffin that Alisa had brought.  Yummmm.

I watched a little bit of a movie with Chris, worked on this post, and then hung up the nappies to dry once they’d finished.

So that was our Thursday.  Who knows what Friday will look like!