 |
| James, Ava, and 6-week old Quinn |
We're working with a 24-hour clock these days.
- 7:30 a.m. - Ava wakes up. Brian gets up and feeds her breakfast of granola, Os, yogurt, and watered-down juice.
- 8:15 a.m. - Brian wakes Helen up. Brody, as usual, is the last to wake.
- 8:30 a.m. - Brian goes upstairs to work for the day. Ava helps Helen diaper and clothe James.
- 9:00 a.m. - Helen's feeling ambitious and invites Ava to make pumpkin bread from scratch. This is familiar territory for Ava and she skillfully scoops, levels off and counts ingredients. James is in his "command center" and is quite joyful.
- 9:15 a.m. - Ava loses interest in baking. Plays with James and his excersaucer.
- 9:30 a.m. - James loses interest in the command center. Yelps loudly. Bread goes in the oven.
- 9:35 a.m. - Helen feeds James. Ava "reads" a book to herself. The title is The Habit. It's an anti-smoking book from the 1970s and I'm not sure where Ava got it, but we'd like to offer a sarcastic thanks to that person. Luckily Ava can't read so she doesn't know it's about death. Instead it's about silly, somewhat friendly monsters.
- 9:45 a.m. - James is swaddled and goes down for a nap.
- 9:50 a.m. - Sharon and Maisie come over to play. They color, play instruments, and Ava places all of her belongings into a laundry basket and pushes it around the house claiming it's a garbage truck.
- 9:51 a.m. - Helen requests that Ava stop pushing the garbage truck around. Ava explains that she can't take her toys out because they're "stinky."
- 10:15 a.m. - Cara and baby Quinn come over to play.
- 10:45 a.m. - Snack of pumpkin bread and oranges
- 11:00 a.m. - James wakes up from his nap and greets his visitors.
- 11:30 a.m. - Maisie and Sharon depart
- 11:35 a.m. - Helen feeds James. Ava sits on the couch and demands that both of the babies sit on her lap. There's more diapering all around.
- 12:00 noon - Lunch of paprikash.
- 12:30 p.m. - Ava begins "quiet time," which is loosely interpreted to mean doing anything you want at any volume you want, as long as you don't come out of the bedroom.
- 12:40 p.m. - Brian comes downstairs to grab lunch and eats upstairs while he continues working.
- 12:45 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - James asleep in Helen's arms.
- 1:30 p.m. - Cara and Quinn depart.
- 1:35 p.m. - Ava asks if quiet time is over. Helen says no.
- 1:35 p.m. - Helen feeds James.
- 1:40 p.m. - 1:41 p.m. - Helen eats lunch.
- 1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Quiet time is over. Ava has another snack while Helen cleans the kitchen.
- 2:00 p.m. - James plays on his playmat. Ava and Helen sweep the floor.
- 2:30 p.m. - Ava and Helen clean Ava's room.
- 3:00 p.m. - Everyone gets ready to go for a walk. Helen feeds James while putting on Ava's socks. Ava puts on a hoodie, a coat, and puts her shoes on the wrong feet. It starts to rain. Ava gets her umbrella.
- 3:30 p.m - Walk to the pizza store to get pizza dough. James is in the baby carrier, wearing a bear hat with ears. Ava is in her radio flyer wagon with her umbrella that looks like a duck. People think we are cute. They tell us so.
- 3:45 p.m. - Buy pizza dough. Ava thanks Helen for being patient as we wait in line.
- 4:00 p.m. - James, Ava, Helen have "circle time" along with Leo and Alex, who are real kids from Ava's school but who are only present in spirit. Songs are sung. We keep the beat by tapping James's belly.
- 4:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Another nap for James. Ava and Helen play "basketball," which is nothing like basketball but does, indeed, involve a ball. We pass it back and forth and talk about letters and numbers.
- 5:00 p.m. - Ava, Helen, and James put masking tape all over the wood floors to make different letters.
 |
| Helen's R had to suffer for Ava's (exceptional) E. |
- 5:30 p.m. - Brian clocks-out for the day and is handed the children. Ava and Brian build a fire while Helen makes dinner.
- 6:00 p.m. - Ava feeds James his dinner of sweet potatoes. James and Brian require a complete change of clothing afterwards.
- 6:15 p.m. - Dinner. Pesto, goat cheese, tomato and arugula pizza with a salad. Ava has seconds.
- 6:45 p.m. - Ava feeds Brody his dinner.
- 7:00 p.m. - Both kids get ready for bed. Read books. Sing songs.
- 7:30 p.m. - Lights out for both kids. Ava continues to read to her babies because they have trouble getting to sleep.
- 7:45 p.m. - Brian walks Brody.
- 8:00 p.m. - Ava falls asleep with around 20 books in her bed.
- 8:00 p.m. - Non-kid time for taxes and blog posts. You're welcome.
- 10:30 p.m. - Helen feeds James.
- 11:30 p.m. - Helen and Brian go to bed.
- 12:50 a.m. - Up to feed James.
- 2:50 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. - James wakes up to eat. Then squeals at his toes for 30 minutes.
- 3:30 a.m. - We give up on James sleeping by himself and bring him to our bed, where he falls instantly asleep.
- 5:50 a.m. - Up to feed James.
- 6:00 a.m. - Alarm goes off for 40 minutes before we hear it.
- 6:40 a.m. - Helen gets up and gets ready for work.
- 6:55 a.m. - Brian gets up, gets James and his stuff in the car.
- 7:25 a.m. - Helen brings James to Nana and Grandad Edwards' where he plays for the day. Ava gets up just in time to wave goodbye. Brian gets Ava ready for school.
