A Day in the Life

I'm joining Laura at Navigating the Mothership in documenting a day in our life. I think it's really neat to see how other people spend their days, and also to be able to look back in so many years' time at what we did day in day out way back when. Hope you enjoy!

Thursday, April 26, 2012


5.30am  Jon's alarm goes off. Usually I ignore this and pretty much sleep right through, only half-waking to say goodbye to him as he leaves. But today I woke up, so I got up and ironed his shirt for the day. This is one thing I quite like to do for him (although usually not in the morning)--somehow it seems to epitomise taking care of your husband to iron his shirt for work. Plus, when he gets up this early, if he misses the bus, he has to wait 20 minutes for the next one, so running late because you forgot to get a shirt ready is no fun.

After Jon leaves for the day, I'm for some reason not particularly tired (very unusual!) and am tempted by the computer. I resist, as I know I will only regret it later if I don't sleep now, but it takes a while to fall back asleep. In the meantime, I take a picture of Gus sleeping.

8.30am  Gus and I wake up. Actually, I think I wake up, hoping to do some blogging or reading before Gus wakes up, but no joy. Lately it has been almost impossible to get up before him--he can sense when I am awake and decides he should wake up to. So we go into his room (yes, he does have a room!  It just has no bed and half of it is used for storage. He still quite likes it in there, though) and read some books.

I soon notice that his diaper is leaking--oops! Head downstairs for a diaper change and some breakfast. Gus isn't so interested in breakfast, but does enjoy some play-dough (to play with, not eat). Second day in a row that he has been digging play-dough, which is pretty cool. Plus, it gives me a chance to write an email that needs to be sent.

The rest of the morning is spent inside playing trains

and outside exploring the area in front of the house. It is actually not raining today (mostly) after a couple of weeks of rain every day, so it is good to get out a bit. Gus has recently learned to throw, so he is practicing by throwing rocks from the neighbour's garden.

We also spend some time looking out at the cars going past

I know he doesn't look very excited, but he really does love it!
Laura encourages us to include pics of ourselves in these posts.
I did take others, but they were all kinds of hideous, so this will have to do!

and, of course, getting Gus some milk. Can't forget that one!

12 noon  I make lunch, seeing as I can't seem to go more than 2 or 3 hours without food. We have some pasta with peas, pumpkin puree, a bit of cream, and a bit more cheese than I meant to put in. But it tasted really yummy. And only took about 10 minutes to make--win!

I also mix up some homemade tortillas for tonight's dinner, based on this recipe. Thanks to Melissa for sharing it!

they need to rest...

Gus spends some time looking out the window at the cars (he loves this and would spend half the day up there if we let him!), then it is naptime. He normally sleeps at 1, but I put him down a bit earlier today, a) because he woke up a bit early, and b) because we are going to a friend's house this afternoon, and we need to leave before his normal wake-up time to get there. It actually worked quite well! I, of course, do very little that is productive during nap, but I do get to have a good read around the internet. Which is rather more enjoyable than the alternative of washing dishes.

car. van. big van!

Awake time!  And we are off.

It takes about 45 minutes to walk to our friend's house. Unless Gus decides to walk rather than staying in the stroller.

aah!  the wind!

But the weather is still pretty nice (other than getting nearly blown over by the wind), so it was a very pleasant journey. And Gus saw 2 buses, so he was happy!

5.30pm We had a good time seeing our friends (and of course forgot to take any pictures), but now it is time to head back home. We need to stop at the store for fruit and yoghurt (like we do every other day!), so we walk back via the lake, which is near the grocery store.

Gus walks more than rides, which is fine, but for some reason he kept on sitting down on the ground. It made the going rather slow, but I wasn't really in a hurry.

helping me push the stroller

We finally get back home, and I make the taboulleh, tortillas, and guacamole for dinner. Sounds a bit weird, but trust me, it's yum.

more tortilla making

While I am doing that, the best part of the day--Jon arrives home!!

Gus usually spends about 20 minutes (or more) every evening before Jon gets home asking "Pa? Knock door? Pa [on the] bus?" It is lovely how much Gus looks forward to Jon getting home, but since that coincides with when I am trying to make dinner and he often wants to be lifted up to look out the window to see if Jon is walking up the path, it can be tiring. But, Jon gets home, they play, we eat, and then we all chill out for a while.

9.00pm  We all head up to bed. Gus spends some time trying out his new trick of walking on his knees, but I figure that's a good way to tire him out for bed :)  We all settle into bed, and as Gus falls asleep, Jon and I watch an episode of NCIS. Good night, sleep tight.

bedtime. can't you tell?