Evenings in my household are fairly predictable. I typically follow a specific routine that seems to aid with the following morning going smoothly so I can hopefully start my day off right. I’m not overly strict about it and the timeline usually varies but once executed I am fairly confident that all is right with the world. I also sort of have a morning routine but I find that it has way less impact on the success of the entire day, therefore the evening routine seems much more important. The evening routine general outline is as follows: bath(s), pyjamas, snack/bottle, bed, clean-up, next day preparations and then mommy time (usually including a glass or two of wine or a spiced rum and ginger). It may sound basic but it takes a lot of effort.
I may or may not have to give two baths. I am one of those parents who baths my kids everyday, well mostly every day. We’ve been known to skip a bath here or there but my daughter is always into too much stuff and my son pukes about 1000 times a day. I've found in order to keep the dirt and smell to a minimum I use several gallons of water and litres of Johnson’s baby soap per day. The evenings I only have one bath to do are the days when my daughter has already bathed during my daily shower (and she‘s managed to keep relatively clean up till bed time). It’s so much easier to contain her mischief when I can see her so I find myself quite frequently sharing my shower time with several bath toys and a child that likes to sit under my feet. Today was such a day.
Routine generally starts between 8 -9pm (but like I said this is just a rough guideline). I usually bath my daughter first (if necessary), then get her teeth brushed dry her up, lotioned-up, diapered-up and pyjamaed-up. After she’s done I use my secret “ABC’s with Elmo,” weapon and plop her on the couch with a sippy cup of milk and a small snack. The video provides me with almost exactly enough time to run the bath for the second time, get my son bathed, dried, lotioned, diapered and pyjamaed and given a bottle (and for you literary buffs out there I know that lotioned and pyjamaed are not actual words but I’m using poetic license). I’m also so efficient at multi-tasking that I usually remember to throw my son’s bottle into the warmer before his bath so it’s the right temperature when he’s ready to eat.
After both kids have had their evening snack I waste no time and put my son to bed first. I kiss him on the head place him in his bed, cover him with a blanket and close the door. I then get my daughter make her help me clean up some of her toys and then bring her to her room and if it’s not too late read her a quick story and then she goes to bed. I must stop here and get my one little brag I have about my babies. They are AMAZING sleepers. I know it has nothing to do with my talents or my parenting skills but all credit lies with their father. My husband comes from a long line of really good sleepers. I’ve never known people that enjoy their beds and “resting their eyes” as much as his family. Let me tell you I’m glad I’ve bred with a man who passed his great sleeping genes to his offspring.
After the babies are snug in their beds I begin the remainder of the clean-up. This involves all remaining toys getting put away. We have an awesome system of just throwing all the toys into a couple bins that get strategically hidden in various locations in the living room. Then I gather all the laundry thrown down my “laundry shoot” (down my basement stairs) and put it in the appropriate piles for the next day’s inevitable chore. I do at least 2 loads of laundry a day or else we’d be swimming in dirty clothes. Who knew that little people could create so much soiled garments, towels, bedding, dishrags, etc? I then bring the load up that’s sitting in the dryer and throw it on my bed.
In between the cleaning I stop and prep all my son’s bottles for the next day. I love having them made in advance so if anything exciting happens in the morning or I want to get out of the house in a hurry I just have to grab pre-made bottles and run. After bottles I do all the dishes and ensure all bottle parts are in the dishwasher and turn it on with Sanitize Rinse button pressed. I then rinse the bathtub out, fold the last load of laundry and let the dog out for one last pee. After all that it’s supposed to be mommy-time. Mommy may or may not have a glass of wine (depends on how crazy the kids were during the day) and then a bit of reading before I pass out.
Lately however I’ve been getting a little down in the mouth about all this schedule. I mean this is what my life has become and sometimes it seems like the never ending monotony of necessary to-do-lists. I was actually a little freaked out tonight when in the middle of my normal routine I gathered my laundry up and put it in their piles for tomorrow, I then went to get the load of laundry from the dryer and the dryer was empty. My first reaction was to be pissed off at myself because I must’ve forgotten to switch over the laundry to the dryer. When I opened the washing machine it was empty. I was dumbfounded. I looked at my regular piles and there wasn’t any more laundry in them than normal. I went back upstairs and finished off the regular agenda but couldn’t stop thinking about that lacking load of laundry. What does that mean for me? Am I losing my mind to be disturbed about NOT having laundry to do? I’m actually so “weirded-out” that I chose to blog about this instead of the other piece I’ve been meaning to get to. One things is for certain I need to get a life…maybe I’ll pack up and head back to Grande Prairie?
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