Things Daddies Do

Playing dolls.  Baking a cake.  Tea parties.

And then there are things that daddies do.

It's been busy and snowy and cold and melty and then snowy again.  All of which makes for poor outdoor time and super cabin fever.

Our home schedule doesn't help much either.  We wake up at about 7 (yeah for the time change, that used to be 6!), eat breakfast, get ready for school/gym and then take Ben to school at 9.  I then take Julia to the gym where she plays with dolls.  We get home, Julia eats and gets a bottle, I shower and we head over to get Ben at 11:30.  At home Ben and Julia have lunch, Julia has another bottle and takes a nap.  At this point, I have lunch while Ben plays trains or legos or goes outside.  Then I play with Ben for a while and then I clean something or other.  At 3 I wake up Julia if she isn't awake yet.  Ben and Julia get a snack at this point, Julia has another bottle and now, around 4, we have an hour to do something, usually shopping for something we need.  The kids need dinner at 5 or they start to get exponentially crazier for every minute past 5.  Around 5:45 or 6 the kids get a bath and then Julia gets a bottle while reading stories, brushes her teeth and goes to bed.  Then I work on homework stuff with Ben, after which he plays learning games on ABCmouse.com till about 7:30.  That's when he brushes his teeth, goes to the bathroom and I come up to make up 1 or 2 stories about a picture he finds in a book and then read him 1 story of his choice.  I have anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour at this point to clean up the house before Beth gets home.  If I'm quick and/or lazy I might get 10 minutes to practice guitar.  Beth calls, around 8 and I start dinner.  We eat, do a bible study and go to sleep somewhere between 9:30 and 11 (whenever Bible study ends).

This is our every day routine.  Weekends are slightly different because there's no school...but it's pretty close regardless.

I don't know how other families work because this is the only one I've started to date, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of wiggle room to do many other things.  I know that other people do accomplish other things...I'm just not sure how.

By the way, Julia (now 20 months, but 19 months at the time of this short fact) can count to 10.  I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but I'm thinking not.  She also knows 4 or 5 songs in a fragmented but recognizable fashion.

Ben is a very good big brother and does a great job of playing nicely with Julia when I have to do work around the house.  I wish I could get him more play dates.  I'm afraid he's going to have my experience with social interactions, or worse, and I worry for his development in that area...as I'm sure all parents do.  I'm doubly concerned because he seems to have my brothers inability to focus on more than one thing at once.  Or rather, the inability to notice anything he's not focused on.

But overall the kids are good and Beth is hanging on for dear life to a career that is leaving her no room for options.  Luckily the grandparents are close by and are excellent about helping out so I can still get some volleyball in on a somewhat regular basis.