Instead of doing a "this week..." entry, today instead is "a day in the life...."
On a regular day, Mommy and Aidan get out of bed after our last nursing of the night to change a big baby diaper. This wakes Aidan up out of his night sleep, and he turns into a sunshiney baby alarm clock for Daddy when we go back to bed, all clean and dry. While Mommy and Daddy yawn, Aidan watches us with bright eyes and gives us tons of gigantic smiles and tells us in cooing happy baby talk all about his dreams and how wonderful he thinks the light is in the window. Then Mommy gives Aidan to Daddy and takes a blissful shower while Daddy plays with Aidan in bed, singing songs, crackling and throwing his ball up and down, dancing his Teddy with him, and talking to him. Once Mommy is out of the shower, Mommy plays with Aidan and Teddy while brushing her teeth and getting dressed, and Daddy showers and gets ready for work. Then Daddy goes to work on the subway and Mommy and Aidan begin our day.
In the morning, Aidan plays in his play gym while Mommy eats her cheerios, next we read a couple of books, and then Aidan has his breakfast and takes a nap in his swing. Mommy tries to work on her dissertation while he is napping. When Aidan wakes up, we go through our baby play stops, one by one - always, of course interspersed with nursing snacks! On the floor, we play in the baby gym, where Aidan currently loves grabbing and trying to eat his sun-rattle; we do "tummy time," and Mommy shows Aidan interesting things (like patterned balls and moving fingers) to practice eye tracking and develop neck muscle; and we practice rolling, back-to-tummy and tummy-to-back. In the bed, Mommy puts Aidan on her tummy and slowly rolls him from there to one side and back again, while he stares, amazed, at how the world flips over and back; Mommy flies Aidan like a little airplane around in figure eights; and our newest trick is for Mommy to do sit-ups while Aidan does tummy time on her shins (check out the cool picture! - Aidan laughs and laughs when we do this - he loves it, and it's a great workout!). In the glider, we read books, and Aidan turns the pages. On the changing table, Mommy has kissing attacks on Aidan's tummy, toes, and face (he's kissable from head to toe). On the couch, we play "this little piggy" and play tickling games ("heads, shoulders, knees and toes..") And around the house, we dance and dance.
When we get bored of the house, we go outside: We get all bundled up and strap on the Ergo or pull out the stroller and walk around the neighborhood. We watch the kids playing on the playgrounds (Aidan can't wait to play on the jungle gyms), and hike around the trails in the parks. Sometimes we meet up with other new moms from our New Mommy Group, and Aidan talks to the other babies while Mommy talks to their mommies.
When Daddy comes home, Aidan gives him huge smiles and starts getting ready for the real party. Daddy usually takes Aidan out on another walk to the park, where they watch the kids playing basketball, and Daddy gives Aidan a bottle. (In the meantime, Mommy does some more work on her dissertation at home.) When they return, Aidan has another snack and a big warm bath, and then climbs into snuggly pajamas to get ready for bed. Daddy makes dinner and then sings and dances with Aidan until he's had enough partying, and then Mommy gives him another snack and he sleeps for a while in his swing. Mommy and Daddy have their dinner and work or putter around and then go to bed. Mommy picks up Aidan when he needs another snack later, and they all sleep (or sleep and snack) until the morning.
On weekends, Mommy passes Aidan off to Daddy when Aidan is not nursing so she can work on her dissertation, and Daddy plays with him all day long and goes on long walks and makes delicious food for everyone. Daddy does a lot of the same thing Mommy does, but he is very creative and comes up with all sorts of exciting new games to play with Aidan. This week, he started playing "car wash", where he walks over Aidan with a towel, swishing it back and forth, while Aidan lies on the ground. Aidan smiles and smiles up at him - he loves all the amazing new things that Daddy comes up with to keep him entertained!
This is what we do on a usual day. Wish we could share it with you in person more often!
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