A normal day in 2018

I was talking with my colleague 20 years my senior about my routine and she said something like – “Good old days” with a sarcasm. I thought it will be a good idea to capture my routine so that I will look longingly back at this time and wonder how did I survive and do so much.

Morning I wake up at 5:05 am and quietly go down the stairs without disturbing anyone, especially my dear husband who needs at least ½ hour more sleep as he goes to sleep much later than I do. The next 10 minutes is relaxed as I drink my coffee, check messages from family and catch up on news on the phone. 

Then its lunch prep time. I prepare everyone’s except your father’s lunch and snacks. It’s pretty easy to do as all the food is prepared and it is just putting them in the right boxes and labeling baby puree with name and date. But I do it with practiced efficiency that I almost look like an assembly worker.

Now I empty the dishwasher, make oats (two versions - one for you both with not many nuts and one for me with loads of nuts) and I run upstairs at 5:45 am to take a shower. As I come out of the shower, the little one is usually awake, so I sit down and feed him for the next 15-20 minutes. Usually when I am done feeding it is ~6:30 and the big sister starts waking up. Now the house is in full swing as everyone is awake.

 The little one gets changed and he is usually lying on his mat happily. Baba prepares fruits and I make omelet while the big sister is either super good (90% of the time) or is a real pain (especially when she pretends to be a baby) . The goal is to start breakfast by 6:45, it’s usually a little late, we are all on the table ready to eat. I have the little one on my lap feeding him oats, avocado and omelet, eating my omelet and fruits and listening to big sisters plans for the day or protests about going to daycare. 

As I get to leave (goal is 7:00am, ends up being 7:15am or later), I have to pretend to forget one of the items – either my glasses or oats or my phone. Big sister then saves the day by getting my “lost” item. Kisses and hugs follows (sometimes I get 100 billion of them) and I am in my car.

The first thing I do as I drive is call my parents and talk for 10 minutes, then I call my sister, if she picks up, then we talk all the way to work. But we get interrupted as big sister calls me couple of times to tell me how much she misses me.

I work and I am usually back to pick you up from daycare at 4:45 to 5:00 pm. I see big sister playing outside, watch her without her watching me, then chat with your teacher for a minute or so. I love seeing you run to me calling Ammaaaa, then we go inside and get the little one who is usually awake at this time. I sit in the rocking chair and I nurse him while big sister tells me about her day or fusses about not giving her enough space in the rocking chair. I use all the tact I have to make big sister not feel too bad as I just came back from work and now I am holding the little one and she doesn’t even have space to sit with us.  

Then I spend >5 minutes just gathering stuff , OMG the amount of stuff – the poopy bag (we don’t use wipes on you when you use diapers, instead we use clothes which has to be washed everyday), the LO’s food from the fridge, the lunch bags, all the jackets, the booties, the mittens, the hats. Then I put the LO on the car seat and finally we are off to the car. We easily spend 30 minutes in the day care with the nursing and getting stuff.

Getting into the car can take anywhere from 1 -5 minutes. One minute if big sister puts on her seat belt herself and I just have to check is she did it right. Five minutes if she acts as "jelly go", which means she keeps sliding off the car seat like a jelly. It is super cute, but super annoying to put the car seat on the floppy jelly go and when the jelly go is making weird noises.

Oh and add to this chaos the awesomeness of winter! Ok, making sure everyone is warm is a pain and after asking – put on your hats, put on your boots like 20 times, we finally get out . I am ok with the jackets and mittens and the sliding through the parking lot, but I am so not prepared for the dark. It gets so dark so easily that by 5:30 pm, some evenings are pitch dark. I can deal with the cold, the road conditions, the absence of sun sucks a little bit of life from me .

Anyway, we get home by 5:30/45ish. Then the next 15 minutes is one my favorite as it is snack time and going through what happened in school, while I wash vegetables, play with you and start getting dinner ready. 

At 6:00, the bath routine starts. The next 15 minutes is little one’s bath time and big sisters play time in the bathroom with water. As you play in the sink and sing silly songs, I give the little one a bath. It is a lot of fun and I get splashed and pretend to be outraged. I love giving you both baths as you are always so playful and love the water.

Now it is big sisters turn and there is always the “talk to my guys” . When the big one starts her bath, I am usually juggling with something in the oven or some cooking whose timer calls me downstairs. It is my most active time of the day. I have to run at least 5 times back and forth between checking dinner and going upstairs to complete the bath and meet the demands of my high maintenance mini human beings. For people who ask me , how I have not put too much weight since giving birth, the only exercise I do everyday is during this 15 minutes.

 And of course, I have to talk to the guys…So the guys are your bath toys which are a bunch of animals – 3 dinosaurs, a tiger, a duck and a cheetah. I am not sure how you ended up with this motley crew, but these are the ones who have been there for the last 5 months.

I make up silly faces and voices and I talk to them while you are the turtle who lives in the lake (the tub). Honestly, this talking is exhausting. 15 % of the days ,I am really into it and I make up grand adventures. 80% of the time I do a decent job of pretending to enjoy it and finally end up being actually happy after seeing the happiness in your face as the turtle usually saves the day when I “talk to the guys”.

Then there is 5% of the time when I just say not today and you get upset and all I want to do is scream and say how tired I am and how much more stuff I have to do, but of course being the responsible adult that I am , I just tell you bath time will be cut short if you don’t stop whining. You are smart enough to not argue with that statement because that means Amma is in a "do not mess with me" mood.

While you are taking bath, the little one is content on the changing table babbling and playing with his toys (for the last month it has been an asparagus and a little box) 95% of the time. In the off 5%, I take him on my lap and he will be little turtle and becomes one the guys in the routine. So now its 6:30 pm.

Big sister's guys

Little one's favorite toys

Phew, just writing about the last one hour after coming back from work is making me tired 😊 Now babis is back, he comes in and plunges in the chaos like a pro father he is. His task is usually to finish big sisters bath or start feeding the little one and he is on the task force the moment he hangs his coat. I run to the kitchen while giving him a summary of how your days were.

Dinner is usually ready by 6:45pm. Big sister comes running after her bath shouting – “ Did I win, Did I win”, she wants to win the race between dinner is ready vs she finishing her bath and getting ready . I let her win most of the days.

Then we all sit on the floor (new tradition from this year) to have dinner and we say Om Shanti Shanti Om . Then we all hold hands for 5 breaths. I added this as our routine last year before dinner so that everyone calms down (definitely works for me) and then we dig in.

We have a good dinner where we all talk about our happiest moment of the day and other things that happened. We are usually done eating by 7:30pm and we play for another 15 minutes. These days we play "Paruppu kada Paruppu kada" and you both love it. Sometimes I read to the little one while he tries to eat the book. 

Little one gets sleepy and I/baba go upstairs, change him and put him to sleep. Then we play with big sister while washing dishes, starting laundry, making sure everyone has lunch for tomorrow till 8:15pm. Then we go upstairs where we brush teeth and I read books for you. 

Now it is 8:45pm, sometimes you beg for more books and I give in. Then I am ready to crash and then baba gives big sister a massage and tells her more stories. Finally you are asleep by 9:00pm. I go to the bedroom, change, read some books and I am deep asleep in a few minutes as baba takes care of everything that I did not take care of.

Now, that's a normal day in our family in early 2018 :)