A Day in the Life of Sophie Sunshine (Part 1)
This is a day in the life of Sophie Sunshine. Since Maggie is the newest member, I wanted to do a day in her life, but it consists pretty much of the following: crying, eating, pooping, eating, crying, sleeping, pooping, eating. Repeat.
5:30AM – The birds are chirping, and Sophie is READY TO GO! “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.” If there’s no response, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.” Then she’ll go back to Daddy again, this time with the volume cranked up to 11.
5:32AM Dad is up with her. In our household, Dad has Sophie from waketime to 6:30 (or so). That’s the magic Daddy-Sophie time when he flies solo. By now we have our routine down, so it’s not too difficult.
5:35AM Dad makes his coffee. “Daddy’s Coffee!!! There it is!” Always good to have someone confirm that I actually made the coffee. Thanks, Soph.
5:40AM Sophie is in her seat, making her first big decisions of the day: Mighty Bites or Cheerios? Yogurt? Bar? Oban or Lagavulan? (oops, that’s Dad’s decision) No problem, we have it all. Dad is about 1/3 through his coffee…whatever it takes to start the engine in the morning.
6:00AM Sophie is done with breakfast, “Daddy, All Done! Down! Daddy, Down!” and ready to head down to the playroom. We try to steer her towards more wholesome fare, but Caillou is the Bad Boy of toddler TV. I’m willing to give the guy a break – after all, the kid has no hair. But what’s up with Mrs. Caillou? Is she pregnant? Still trying to lose the baby weight after Rosie? As you can see, I’m starting to really get into Caillou. And it’s only mildly better than the acid trip known as Boobah.
6:30AM
It’s time to play. One fun game Sophie’s Mimi taught her was “Coffee”, which involves her pouring pretend coffee into some cups we have. If I’m lucky, I get to play “Dinner”, which means I get pretend food as well! Hooray! The other options for play usually involve trying to drag something up the stairs: one day a baby stroller, the next a shopping cart, etc. The only requirement is that it’s oversized and has the potential to kill her if she fell down the stairs with it.
7:30AM
If we’re lucky, Maggie is just waking up. If not, she’s just going to sleep after three hours of Betsy being up with her. Then it’s time for Dad to get ready. If we’re lucky, and it’s Saturday, we get to go to Gymnastics!
8:30AM
We’re ready to go – Dad & Sophie go off to “Nastics” (as Sophie calls it). This is where she gets to climb up a climbing wall, walk across the balance beam, and jump into a pit of spongey squares. I think the pit is the scariest; it’s deep, full of foam, and I bet there are still parents trapped in the bottom like fossils waiting to be discovered. The only times I have actually been in the pit I started sinking…..until I remembered my quicksand training.
The original reason to sign her up was so that she would be busy and active, giving us a chance to wear her out while we stayed fresh and strong. It didn’t work out that way. I spend the entire hour chasing after her keeping her from jumping off a balance beam, or pulling her out of the pit, or helping her flip over the bar, etc etc. By the end, I’m exhausted and she’s rarring to go.
10:00AM
Nastics is done! We run off to the Ginerbread Construction Company for rockin’ good muffins. We are sure to bring back some for mommy. Usually by this time we get the request for the bah-bah. Luckily, mommy has packed a whole bunch of goodies, so I tempt her with raisins to eat on the ride home. Of course, what that really means is raisins get scattered about the car. I think I will begin to call her Johnny Raisinseed.
11:00AM
Muffins finished, playtime resumes. If we’re lucky, we’ll play “Sleep”. This doesn’t happen very often.
12:00PM
Nap Time! Sophie will go down for a nap, fortified by a bottle, and we’ll breath a sigh of relief. She currently lulls herself to sleep by singing “The Wheels on the Bus”. Whatever works…..
To be continued…..