DS and I usually wake up between 7:15 - 7:30. Morning is his main TV time -- he usually watches about 45 minutes while he eats breakfast and while I take a shower, get dressed, quickly read emails and scan the news online, and get lunches packed, and get him dressed.
I have lunches down pretty well and it usually takes me about a minute to fill his lunchbox. I keep things like PB&J, bean and cheese tacos, pizza bagels, cooked pasta, and individual servings of beans or soup, all homemade, in the freezer for his lunch. If he's having leftovers, I pack them the night before. I just throw in one of those, cut up a piece of fruit into a tupperware, and add a side like a cheese stick or tupperware of corn (I portion out the whole cob or can at at time). I try to keep basically a week's worth of lunch food at my office.
We're out the door between 8:30 and pushing 9, depending on the day. I have no commute to speak of -- his daycare is less than a mile from my house, and my university and office is just a few blocks from there (I'm a researcher on campus, and there's actually parking in front of my department, which is kind of awesome). It takes like 20 minutes to get out my door, get DS dropped off at preschool, and get into my classroom or office. Sometimes I bike, but DS has really outgrown his bike seat and I need to figure out a new system.
I work, study or have class until 5, and I pick him up around 5:15. From there, we might do a lot of different things. We do a ton of playdates and dinner dates, like at least two a week. My boyfriend comes over for dinner pretty often (though often he also comes over after dinner, more towards DS's bedtime). If it's nice we might have a picnic at the park, especially in the summer when the days are longer. Sometimes we just hang out and play outside, or do puzzles or something inside. Sometimes we run errands or go grocery shopping in the evening.
As far as dinner goes, I try to do batch cooking and have lots of leftovers so I can feed DS as soon as we get home. Sometimes I just throw on some pasta -- I always have a tub of pesto in the fridge, which fortunately he loves. I'm also trying to do more crockpot meals so dinner is ready when I get home. And I think there's nothing wrong with me and DS eating things like sandwiches, scrambled eggs, or grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. I'm trying really hard to do more meal planning for batch cooking and crock pots, especially since the new semester starts next weeks and things will get a bit busier.
DS takes a two hour nap at school, so he doesn't fall asleep until 9:30. I try to start the bedtime routine at 8:30 if he's taking a bath, or a bit before 9 otherwise. We read a book or two and I lay down with him till he's asleep, which doesn't take much longer than 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes just 5. Betime is usually pretty painless. After DS is asleep, I hang out with my boyfriend if he's over (which is usually three or four nights per week), or I mess around online, or read, or watch TV, or do a bit of cleaning. I try super super hard to have all my classwork done during the day, because my brain tends to not function so well late at night and I really like having that break. But sometimes there's some homework I have to finish up. I also am getting sort of interested in finding new writing or arts projects. I shoot for being in bed by 11:15 or 11:30, because I do love me some eight hours of sleep. :)
Honestly, sometimes it can be hard filling the time from 5:30 - 9:30 without turning on the TV, which is why I try really hard to keep our evenings full of things like dinner with friends. We have a ton of good friends in our neighborhood -- it's a nice little urban, walkable neighborhood -- and I love having people around us.
Anyway, I feel like our schedule is really quite lovely. A huge part of that is not having a commute. When I got accepted to grad school, I put a ton of energy into finding and apartment and a preschool close to campus. That makes a huge difference in our quality of life.
Â
