What a day

My mind seems to be all over the place today. I have never been much of a writer, well I like to write, but my grammar is not the best. So, be nice to me if you actually read the whole thing and you find typos!

It is only 1:30 and I am trying to look back on the things accomplished so far and feel, well... accomplished!

Every day is different, as much as I would like to say that I have a pretty normal routine, it has been hard to get back into it since I have been sick. I feel normal today, but I am still "removing" mucus from my nose/mouth.

I have been reading a book called, "Toddler Wise." By the authors of "Baby Wise", a book that Colin and I read right before Kellen was born. It is fairly similar in that it talks about routines and habits that help raising a child a little less crazy. One of the chapters talks about writing out a schedule for your child of what his typical day should look like, (knowing that some days it just might not happen). This usually helps a child understand expectations and routines. For example, Kellen wakes up at 8 am and has a sippy cup of milk, I change his diaper and then wait about 15-20 minutes before we head down stairs to have breakfast. When he is a little older I will teach him how to make his bed and get dressed (when the toddler bed comes). After breakfast he usually plays in the living room while I clean up breakfast and then some days he will follow me around while I clean parts of the house especially if I am vacuuming, he LOVES the vacuum.) We may go on some adventure to the store, riding the bike, or for a jog. By noon he is eating lunch, and 1pm he has a nap. Around 3pm he is awake and has something to drink, maybe a small snack and gets to play with his toys in the living room. If I am in the kitchen he usually plays with the Tupperware or the serving spoons. Between 5 and 630 we eat dinner at the table (no TV) and then around 730 we head up for a bath and no later than 830 he is in bed. His bed time routine includes pj's a story and prayer time with mommy and daddy and then we turn on his fan, turn off the light and tuck him into bed.

There are obviously a ton of gaps in between his schedule and the book actually suggests several different activities to fill it with, some are cool while others are well... interesting. Some of them are:

-Mommy and baby time- playing on the floor or somewhere with your kiddo.
-Toy time: on a blanket with ONE toy, and he can't leave the blanket until you tell him to (usually only 5 minutes and then the time can increase as he learns to stay focused on one toy for a little while longer). I guess this helps when you want him to sit and read a book with you without destroying the pages, or just sit period.
-Outside play time- on a bike, or playground etc.

These are just a few that I remember.

Today, his routine, well, didn't seem very fun for him. He woke up and drank his milk, got dressed and then I brought him into my bedroom so I could finished getting ready. (Most of my morning routine is finished before he wakes up). After breakfast he was engaged in his toys near his table for a few minutes while I cleaned up and then I decided to bake a cheese cake. We have a TON of cream cheese from the holidays and I figured I would use it before it goes bad. SO- smart one made a home made crust (for regular pie, oops, I'm sure it will taste OK any way). I baked the cheesecake and now it is resting in the fridge. Kellen of course was pretty much in the kitchen the entire time.

THEN, we headed upstairs and vacuumed the entire upstairs, and I vacuumed the bathrooms and cleaned the toilets, sinks, mirrors, trashcans, and bath tubs. Again, Kellen pretty much was fine with following me everywhere. He stopped off in the office to bang on the keyboard, I seriously need to get him the toy I've been searching for that is a kid-keyboard. We headed back downstairs to finish up in the last bathroom. I found him lying on the floor as I was bringing everything down, and he had the hose wrapped around him!


Any way, we had lunch, and the darnedest thing happened (other than meals being the only "scheduled" thing in his day so far.) I gave him cut up string cheese, bread and leftover pull apart pork. I also made a sandwich with almost the same thing on it for me. He ate all of his cheese, but left everything else on his plate. For those of you that know Kellen, he doesn't really leave anything on his plate by the end of meal time. He did the same thing last night with his dinner. He ate his potatoes, but left the chicken and other items on his tray. Last night we gave him a spoon and wouldn't you know it he finished the rest of his dinner with the spoon. At first, Colin was putting the pieces on the spoon and he would put the spoon in his mouth. Then he would take the food off the spoon and put it in his mouth. It was odd, but he ate his food and we were glad. SO, today when he refused to eat his pork and bread, I tried heating it up, eating a piece and then putting one in his mouth, and almost forcing it in his mouth so he could taste it (this works with Oranges, I squeeze the juice in his mouth, and then he realizes he likes the taste and eats the rest of the orange). That didn't work. Almost giving up and letting him have only cheese and milk for lunch, I remembered last night and the spoon. THE SAME THING HAPPENED! The little booger ate all the pork and bread on his plate! He would hand me the spoon, I would put a piece of meat or bread on it, and he would eat the food, and then give me back the spoon to do it again!

Combined with him being a little cranky, he didn't survive very long after lunch and it was time for a nap. The thing that I feel weird about is the fact that he had pretty much ZERO routine today (other than food). How bored he must have been watching mommy clean and cook! I attend Bible study once a week and Kellen gets to play with other kids during that time, and then also on Sundays at Church. Other than that he doesn't have much play time with kids (oh, and on Wednesdays I watch my nephew so he plays with him). I wonder if I should have more scheduled activities for him, or if it is OK for him to just aimlessly play at home; sometimes with his toys and sometimes with non-toys! I know I don't have to schedule EVERY waking moment for him, eventually he will get bored and will have to learn how to entertain himself sometimes.

I guess I just wonder if I am doing an OK job at this mom thing. We don't really watch a whole lot of TV, even though this morning I discovered EXERCISE TV on Fios on Demand and it was FREE and SUPER COOL!! (email me if you want to know more, since no one is probably going to read this, I don't think I will get any emails!). Any way, sorry, tangent. I just want to make sure that he is learning and I am doing what I need to do to make sure that he is able to do that!

Well, blog world. Thanks for listening...
Mindie