Weekly Round-up

Since everyone was healthy, this week was much better than last week. I also implemented a new daily schedule for the kids this week. So far it is working out well. Hannah's independent play time is improving, the kids enjoy sibling playtime, and I love that I get to spend one-on-one time with Nathan during learning time. Our days have gone very smoothly so far both with Peter's day and night shifts. I haven't even had to do much tweaking yet ... although I may shorten Hannah's morning nap at some point.

Due in part to this post on a blog I read, I have been in an organizing mood for the past week or so. I bought some totes when we were in Regina on Monday and have put them to good use. I still need many more, but I was able to organize Hannah's closet and under our bathroom sink. To help with my goal of being more organized, Peter is building me over 60 feet of shelving in our laundry room. The room is large, but had no shelves in it at all! It did have an old cupboard of some sort, but it was quite useless. Today we took that out, added two 12' shelves over the washer, and Peter is in the middle of making 4 10' shelves on the other side of the room. Here is the room as it looks tonight:

Hopefully the shelves will hold our million boxes of kid clothes. I can't believe how quickly they multiply!

A few weeks ago we picked up our new living room furniture but I have neglected to take and post pictures of it. I love our new recliner sofa. It is so comfy!



(Happy, Mom? ... Pictures of the house :) )

Goals:
Still doing well keeping the kitchen clean at night. I noticed this week that the two times I didn't clean up before bed I did it first thing in the morning, while the kids ate breakfast. This is a definite improvement.

The schedule really helped me to do reading and learning time with Nathan and Hannah. It's great to have it slotted into our day so I don't get busy doing other things and forget.

I did about half of the daily tasks this week. I started out well, but got off track toward the end of the week. I will continue to work on that this week.

Hmmm ... for this week I would like to see how little money I can spend! lol. We're not planning any trips to the city this week so I have no reason to spend much. I'll probably need to pick up a few miscellaneous groceries at the co-op, but that should be it.

Attempt at a schedule

I used to be so good at scheduling ... before Hannah was born Nathan and I had a very predictable routine every day. He had a time each day to play on his own in his room, to play with me, to nap, etc ... Once Hannah came our schedule got a bit crazier, and with the impending move things just kind of went out the window. Nap times are still fairly consistent, but all other aspects of the schedule went out the window to a certain extent.

The constraints we are dealing with for our new schedule are mostly related to Peter's shifts. When he is on nights our days are much less structured than when he is on days. We do more family outings, so I have to leave time in the day that is flexible to do that. Since he usually sleeps until around 10 when he works nights, I have tried to plan several of the elements of the day that I think are necessary before Hannah gets up from her nap at 11:30.

Peter also either works until 6 pm or leaves for work at that time most days of the week. Our supper time switches based on that. On nights he works until 6 we eat later, and on nights when he has to be at work for 6 we eat earlier.

The last consideration is there is a mom's group that meets twice a week from 9:30 am - 11:30 am. I guess the only option at the moment for that is to go off-schedule one day a week. Twice a week would be too much for the kids right now.

So, with all that in mind, here is my tentative schedule. I'm sure it will change as we try it out.

7:00 AM - Everyone up and eat breakfast
7:45 AM - Baths for the kids, dressed
8:30 AM - Hannah will have independent playtime while Nathan helps me with whatever daily chores we have
9:00 AM - Sibling playtime. I will have to supervise this for a bit as Nathan has been pushy lately and because it's somewhat new to them.
9:30 AM - Hannah goes down for her nap, Nathan has learning time / game time with me
10:00 AM - Independent playtime for Nathan
11:00 AM - Help Nathan clean up toys in his room, then get Hannah up
11:30 AM - Prepare, eat, and clean up lunch
12:15 PM - Play outside if at all possible! Run errands around town, go to library, etc ...
2:00 PM - Nap for Hannah, rest time for Nathan.
3:00 PM - Free playtime for Nathan
3:30 PM - Hannah up from nap, small snack for both, reading time with Mom or Dad
4:00 PM - TV time for Nathan, independent playtime for Hannah. If we are eating early, I will prep supper during this time. If not I will clean during this time.
4:30 PM - TV time for both
5:00 PM - If eating early ... supper, structured playtime at table, jammies (clean up kitchen during structured playtime)
If eating late ... structured playtime at table, jammies, supper (prep supper during structured playtime)
6:45 PM - Story time
7:00 PM - Teeth for both and bed for Hannah, Nathan independent playtime in his room. He often wants to play in bed before sleeping. I'm hoping giving him 30 minutes to play in his room before bed might help him to get to sleep faster.
7:30 PM - Nathan bed.

And I have to add a third to this mix in less than 6 months?? Questioning my sanity at the moment ... lol.

Weekly Round-up

I just realized my last post was my 100th on this blog! Pretty cool. I'm really enjoying keeping up with it this time around. Hopefully it lasts.

This week has been a pretty tough one in our household. It started out great. The weather has been fantastic and we have been taking full advantage of it. On Tuesday Hannah had her 12 month needles. She seemed fine after them until Wednesday afternoon when she started with a fever. Thursday afternoon she started with vomiting and diarrhea and that continued basically until now. I think she's on the mend finally. She has been able to keep down some liquids and a few Arrow Root crackers this morning. My biggest concern was dehydration. I called the health line yesterday and they told me I should give her clear liquids, but not water. The problem ... Hannah only drinks milk and water. She turns her nose up at everything else! We discovered she will eat a popsicle every once in a while, so between that and the bit of food she's getting, I've decided water will have to do it for drinks. I think since she's getting sugar and calories elsewhere that the water will be ok.

Wednesday afternoon I had my monthly doctor's appointment. Everything looks good and we heard the baby's heartbeat again. Yay! I got my ultrasound date and Peter is trying to switch his work around so he can make it.

Since Hannah's been sick we've stuck pretty close to home for most of the week. Peter and Nathan went to help a neighbour build a fence yesterday (they have a 3-year-old boy for Nathan to play with).

I planted a few things in the garden this week, which was fun, and have had quite a bit more success with my seeds indoors. Less than a month until the last frost date!

Goals:
Despite Hannah being sick, I got my kitchen cleaned up every day except last night. I feel really good about this habit - it might actually stick!

I did better with reading to Hannah and doing Nathan's workbook with him. I'm not sure I reached 5 days for each of them, but it was definitely more than before. I am currently working on making up a daily schedule for our family again. I love when we are on a schedule - just working it around Peter's shifts has been tricky. I'm planning on posting a draft schedule sometime today.

And a new goal for this week ... I want to do my weekly tasks according to the calendar I've been following this week. They are:

Monday - change sheets and bath linens, laundry (super easy day)
Tuesday - vacuum & dust (upstairs); clean bathroom
Wednesday - laundry; wipe fingerprints off appliances windows, door knobs, light switches
Thursday - vacuum & dust (downstairs and bedrooms - this is where our carpet is), kitchen prep / clean out fridge
Friday - laundry; mop kitchen, bathroom, and hallway

This is slightly different than what is shown on the link above so it fits my house and our lifestyle better.

So ... that's my plan for the week. Peter works both days and nights this week, so it will truly test any schedule we put in place.

Current schedule

I've spent some time over the last month or so trying to find a schedule that works for our family. During the first month of Hannah's life I found that I was too often neglecting Nathan during the day, so much that he would get bored eventually and start getting into stuff he knows he is not allowed to play with. He's such an 'easy' toddler and is great a amusing himself but he still has limits on how long I can let him play by himself. I began reading a blog that talked quite a bit about what categories of activities a toddler should have in his day and started to think about how to make it work for me.

The constant in our day is that Nathan naps somewhere between 12:30 and 3:30 for 2 hours. I also knew I needed Hannah to be on a 3-hour schedule and that I wanted some one-on-one time with each of them throughout the day. A new thing I added to Nathan's schedule is called 'independent play time.' This is a time for him to play on his own in his room. It will help him learn to play without me always interfering and fixing things for him when he gets stuck. The first day or two of this were tough, as Nathan would cry when I would shut the door and periodically pull at his door handle (as an aside - thank goodness he hasn't figured out how to open doors yet!). This only lasted for about 2 days, though, and now as long as he has his favourite toys (his cars and little garage) in his room he smiles as I leave. Yippee! He does independent play for 90 minutes most mornings.

Here is our current schedule, but it is always subject to change!

7:00 am --> Up and feed Hannah, Nathan up and dressed, breakfast for Nathan and I. Hannah goes down for her nap somewhere between 7:45 and 8:00 am.
9:30 am --> One-on-one time with Nathan.
10:00 am --> Independent play time for Nathan in his room. Get Hannah up to eat. Tummy time for her.
11:00 am --> Nap for Hannah.
11:30 am --> Independent play time ends for Nathan. We usually do some laundry right after this since we're already upstairs.
12:00 pm --> Lunch for Nathan and I.
1:00 pm --> Nathan goes down for his nap. Hannah up to eat.
1:30 pm --> One-on-one time with Hannah.
2:00 pm --> Hannah down for a nap. This is my own free time :)
3:00 pm --> Nathan up from his nap. If he's really tired I'll let him sleep a bit longer.
4:00 pm --> Hannah up to eat. Independent play time for her (usually either in pack and play or on activity mat). She goes down for her nap around 5:00 pm.
4:30 pm --> Supper preparation, supper, clean up.
6:30 pm --> Nathan bath and jammies.
7:00 pm --> Hannah up to eat, then bath.
8:00 pm --> Both kids in bed. Sigh of relief :) haha.
10:00 pm --> Dreamfeed (wake Hannah to eat, diaper change, and straight back to bed).

I had to make this schedule so I can do it by myself, since Peter is heading away in less than three weeks. Otherwise I would have put both baths at the same time and we would have done them together.

My original schedule had their naps / independent play time overlapping much more so that I had 3 1/2 hours where they were simultaneously occupied every day. However, I felt that I wasn't getting enough one-on-one time with either of them when I did that, so I like this schedule better.

I just ordered Babywise II, Toddlerwise, Childwise, and a potty training book by Gary Ezzo so when they come I'm planning to start adding in other elements to Nathan's day. I've read a few of them on the blog I mentioned above but wanted to get a basic schedule down first.

And ... starting to potty training with Nathan after we move. Fun, fun! At least I can do it in the summer where fewer clothes need to be removed. lol. I'm sure there will be many posts dedicated to this effort in the coming months. If anyone has any tips I would be grateful to hear them.