In case you were wondering, SAHM stands for - Stay at Home Mom (clever, right?) And so far, we are one week down yet still one week left of this glorious Winter Break. But all I can keep thinking about is my maternity leave and how much I loved being at home. I think this break is harder than summer break because of the fact that I came back from maternity leave last year and only had 2.5 months left until summer. This time around, I've been working for 4 months and this break is acting like a little tease, reminding me of our daily routines we had down so well before school started up again.
So, here is a look at a day in the life of a SAHM (with a wild 15 month old):
7:00 am (on the dot) Sometimes 7:30 if he feels like being nice - Cohen wakes up, no longer crying for "Mama," it is now "My Baba!" Probably need to work on getting rid of that thing. But we lounge on the couch together, enjoying Matt Lauer The Today Show and drinking our baba and coffee.
(Notice we are already trying to get on the Santa's good list this new year.)
Around 8:30, we enjoy breakfast together. We laugh, babble and feed the dog any scraps that we don't want from our breakfast plates.
The rest of the morning is spent cleaning, getting ready for the day, dancing the Hot Dog (you got that one Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mamas), and playing until lunch time. I love this time of the morning because Cohen is so active and charming - just like his mama after two cups of coffee. And yes, I am exhausted.
This would be the Hot Dog in motion - look at that speed! My child's a dancing machine - he may be the next Usher.
So proud of his moves!
11:00 am - not a second later (this kid will for sure let you know he is not waiting any longer) Cohen enjoys his lunch. If he's really tired, I may luck out and he'll fall asleep during lunch, which eliminates the usual nap time battle.
(You can't tell he loves his spaghetti or anything...)
More play time, usually a little Muno and Broby time is included during this last hour before nap.
On this particular Monday, we had a learning moment during this hour.
Today's Lesson the Day went down like this however:
I can push my bucket over the fireplace ledge....
and be able to get in and sit happily in my bucket!
The time period between 12 and 2 is what I like to call Mother Sanity. I'll workout, shower, watch T.V., nap - do whatever I want to regain my motherhood conciseness during these two hours. Our deal is whether he wakes up or not, he stays in his crib for 2 hours.
From 2 (or later if I'm lucky) and on is spent snacking, playing, making dinner and many other motherly activities that are expected of the stay at home mom. I typically try to run errands during this time period because around 4 is when we enter the "Witching Hour" in which he turns not into a nice witch, like Harry Potter, but rather the Wicked Witch of Follow Drive. He'll grump, pout and want you to hold him - especially if he didn't take a good nap. That's why I run errands because the car ride and trips distract him from putting any evil spells on my patience.
This is how we handled the "Witching Hour" today. Please take note of the napping husband in the background - he had to work at 4:30 this morning -- wah, wah.
By 7 o'clock, it is bath time and bed time. We splash and sing in tub, run around naked like a wild child and then baba and rock until its sleepy time.
How can you not love this face??
I really miss doing this on a full time basis. I think if only I could work my job part time to gain some socialization in the outer world, I could handle this stay at home mom business. Maybe one day I'll get lucky...
