The other night I had a good cry while I told Jon about how I’m going to really miss these predictable days of routine with Lucy. Not that we won’t develop a new rhythm when Belly Baby arrives, but it is just so pleasant to have almost-guaranteed breaks during sleep times midday and in the evening. To paraphrase Dignan in the film Bottle Rocket, “we Boyds benefit from structure.” So in tribute to this golden age of Lucy’s delightfully structured days as an “only toddler,” we offer you another Lucy Watch.
7:30 am Lucy wakes up. Papa brings Lucy out to join Mama on the futon. Mama had gone to sleep here when she had trouble nodding off after her 5:00 bathroom break. We enjoy a “People Pile” together and snuggle in the covers for a few minutes before Lucy starts reminding us about our routine: “Shave! Dress! Hungry!”
8:00 am Papa dresses Lucy. Papa tries in vain to convince Lucy to try wearing pink pants, or blue ones with flowers; Lucy insists on her flowered pants.
8:30 am Breakfast. Lucy experiments with Day Two of feeding herself cereal with a spoon. This time we use yogurt instead of milk. Learning can be a messy business! But Lucy is diligent about wiping off her face with a clean-up rag. —continues after 0’55” video—
8:55 am Lucy practices buckling her booster seat. In the meantime, Mama washes a few dishes. Lucy entreats Mama to be “careful!” while washing the paring knife.
9:07 am Playtime. Lucy puts on her favorite “Grace” hat (which actually doesn’t belong to “Grace”:/news/2007/baby-high-five/), plays in the fun room, tries to put on her cheetah jacket. —continues after 0’51” video—
*9:25 am. New toy.* Papa has brought up the infant car seat for Mama to wipe down. After Mama cleans it off, Lucy attempts to buckle the car seat, which provides long moments of amusement. Mama and Lucy putter around the house while Papa works in the basement, clearing a path to move some old dressers.
*9:45 am. Snack.* Even though we just finished breakfast, Lucy calls for Goldfish, inspired by a magazine picture.
*10:00 am. Mama joins Lucy in fun room.* Mama takes up her favorite position lying on the daybed and reads “_Wondertime_ magazine”:http://wondertime.go.com/ with Lucy. Included in the fun is tickling, playing, a diaper change, and a request for pigtails.
*11:00 am. Lucy is getting a little crabby.* We eat some more goldfish, and Mama fills out “cord blood donation”:http://www.givcord.org/ info. We consider: should we go for a walk? Is it warm enough? Can Hippo Mama work up the energy to get bundled up and go outside?
*11:25 Visit Papa in basement.* Papa has been working diligently in the basement for hours. While we are down in the office with him, Papa brings out a star lamp that he gave Mama when they were dating. It’s a little dusty, but we decide to hang it in the “cozy nook” area of the office. He vacuums the star lamp to clean it before hanging it, which makes quite an impression on Lucy. All the rest of the day, Lucy periodically says “dah-doh” (which means star) and “shah-poom” (which means vacuum).
*11:45 Daily Lucy videos.* Mama decides that there isn’t quite enough time now for a walk — and she wasn’t sure she wanted to brave the icy sidewalks anyway. So, we accept Lucy’s proposal that we watch some “Daily Lucy videos”:/news/category/baby/video/. We only watch a few, and then we say “bye-bye” to the computer.
*12:00 Food preparation.* Lucy observes as Mama gets the ingredients together to bake bread in the bread machine. Mama works on some preparations for bringing dinner to our friends later that day, as well as our lunch. Lucy spends some more time practicing her buckling and spinning techniques.
*12:30 Lunchtime.* Lucy enjoys a bagel & cream cheese (which she eats by picking the cream cheese off, eating it, and handing it back to Mama for a new application of cream cheese), pineapple, provolone cheese, a few potato chips, six M&Ms, and some sugar-free Jell-o with Papa. Then more practice with the buckles.
*1:30 Boydinis!* Papa indulges Lucy in a few “Boydinis”:/news/2008/boydinis/ and we practice saying, “Ta-dah!” Then it is time for a diaper change. More buckle practice on the infant car seat.
*1:45 Brush teeth with Mama.* Lucy “now enjoys our toothbrushing routine”:/news/2008/oral-hygiene-impasse/, complete with her own special green toothbrush that she picked out. Lucy and Mama retire to her room and read a few books: “_Baby! Baby!_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375842071/octothorppres-20 , “_Baby Boo!_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592235859/octothorppres-20 , and “_Babies_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0448030845/octothorppres-20 (do you sense a theme?). We bend our three-book-limit rule to end with “_Little Butterfly_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0811856453/octothorppres-20.
*2:05 Naptime.* Lucy happily snuggles under her blankets with “Piggy Lou and Barney Bear”:/news/2007/vocabulary-update-september-7-2007/, saying “bye-bye!” as Mama leaves the room. Papa and Mama catch some winks, too, although Mama steals a few minutes to read “_Great with Child_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585421677/octothorppres-20 before nodding off with her three strategically-arranged pillows.
*3:00 Lucy cries out.* Awake already? Lucy’s call surprises Mama and Papa, arriving thirty minutes earlier than usual. Papa gives Lucy a snuggle and a sip of water, then puts her back down. Will she sleep some more? Is she coming down with a little cold?
*3:15 Lucy up from her nap.* After a few more quiet moments, Lucy is up for good. Papa picks Lucy up while Mama grunts herself up from her reclining position. Lucy still feels a bit frowsty, so Mama snuggles Lucy in the rocking chair (definitely a challenge with the basketball belly) and we talk about how it’s hard to wake up sometimes.
*3:25 Train video.* Papa and Lucy watch the thirteen-minute “train film”:http://kbhrr.com/gallery/fos-2008.php that Papa made of Grandpa’s recent model railroading party. Lucy sits mesmerized, periodically calling out “train” and telling Papa that the wheels “wiggle.” Mama packs up supper to bring to Deborah, Emmett, Evan, and brand-new Baby Corrie.
*3:40 In the car.* We are off to visit our friends! The whole way there Lucy entertains us with her stream-of-consciousness commentary: “Corrie, Evan, Deborah, Emmett, dog, balloon, singing, Dora, chips.” At one point, a song by the Smoking Popes comes on, and after Mama and Papa name the band, Lucy rocked out for a bit and exclaimed, “Popes!”
*4:15 Visit Baby Corrie and family.* Lucy is fascinated by Rosie the Dog, is stared at Baby Corrie, and is hugged Deborah. Will we really have a little one like this in just a few weeks? Mama is reassured talking to her good friend and hearing that the second baby is really, truly an easier experience.
*5:20 Hungry.* When Lucy sat down at our friends’ dining room table and called out “hungry!,” we took that as our cue to leave. Lucy was a little cranky on the way home (and we do notice a runny nose beginning), but seems to entertain herself pretty well by trying to learn how to unzip her boots (which she did, with Mama’s help), and “remove her socks”:http://boydsnest.org/news/2006/look-ma/. There’s nothing that makes a girl happier in the car than having naked feet.
*6:00 Suppertime.* At home, Papa starts feeding Lucy her supper while Mama prepares food for the grown-ups. Lucy enjoys cheese, strawberries, and peanut butter graham crackers. Plus a peppermint “Jo-Jo” (the Trader Joe’s version of Oreos).
*6:20 Grown-ups eat, too.* Mama sits down to eat with Papa and Lucy.
*6:21 “All done!”* Lucy declares that she is finished with her supper. She gets out of her booster seat, practices buckling, and runs around. When she calls for more food, Papa gets her back into her seat, where she stays for approximately 45 seconds and 4 bites.
*6:40 Lucy “helps” Mama unload the dishwasher.* This is a bit challenging since a lot of the items are still somewhat wet and require putting away in high cabinets. Hmmm…
*6:42 Bathtime.* Papa gets Lucy ready for a bath. Lucy pees in the potty for the first time in a few days (hooray!).
*7:00 Pajama-ed.* Lucy is clean, moisturized (by request: “lotion!”), and dressed for bedtime. After a good round of jumping in the crib, Lucy is ready to brush teeth with Mama. —continues after 0’23” video—
*7:05 Bedtime with Papa.* A sip of water, a good-night kiss for Mama, and Lucy and Papa disappear into her room for bedtime book-reading.
*7:20 Lucy asleep.* Mama and Papa spend some time cleaning up the kitchen and cataloging new digital photos and videos. Then, geeks that we are, we finish watching one of the four audio commentaries of “_The Return of the King_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000634DCW/octothorppres-20 (the one by the design team) while eating dessert. Mama gets some work done on her scrapbook while viewing — almost done with 2002!
Good night!
Well, I’m sure that won’t be the last of the tears you’ll shed for the life you are leaving behind. I have to say, I cried a ton in the last month of my 2nd pregnancy, and on into the first weeks of Jake’s outside life. Life with your first baby is just such an amazing surprise intimacy that opening the circle to admit more children is excruciatingly bittesweet. You grow, the circle expands and you are bigger, somehow. The first time I started in to sing one of my lullabies to tiny Jake in my arms, I felt that I was somehow betraying Eli. And my own self-with-Eli. Irrational, but powerful, and real. I found it gets easier, but not easy, to love each new pupa your child becomes while still holding on to the various cocoons you’ve already loved. Ah- and I’ve got one on the verge of butterflying here. Talk about tears.
Ahh…routine. How I really miss Daniel & my routine, and I’m not even pregnant again. It’s this whole moving to Madison thing that’s absolutely wrecked our schedule!
It’s okay, though. Changes happen, and I know that when Belly Baby arrive, it’s going to be a whole new chapter to have fun with. Hang in there!
Honestly, that’s been the hardest thing about #2. Knowing that eventually you will be in a routine again (because I, like you, thrive on routine), but also knowing that it’s a LONG way off. And structuring days around naptimes — an inconvenience that got way easier once they went to one or two naps. Enjoy the first few weeks where she’ll sleep everywhere though!
Wow that’s a great routine, but you definitely will have another one established quickly!
Love the All Gone. Mo does that too. Especially if he’s not terribly interested in what we are having for dinner.