A Day in the Life - Eli

This post chronicles "A Day in the Life" for Eli.  If you've ever wondered what he's up to every minute of every day, here it is!  If you haven't ever wondered that, I don't blame you :)  I'm writing this post for two reasons.  1) He changes so dang often that I can hardly remember what our life looked like last week, and  I want to remember this precious time I've had at home with him for the last 11 weeks.  2)Ashley over at The Domestic Wannabe does 'a day in the life' every Wednesday and I love it.  I just enjoy seeing what other people are up to.  Especially people I don't know.  Oh what blogging has done to our society.  We used to have diaries with locks on them...now we broadcast our every thought for the world to know.  But I digress.
 

6:00 am - Little man starts hollering from the other room (yes, hollering.  Our kid has some pipes).  It seems he has finally dropped his middle of the night feeding (yay!) so sometimes we struggle to make it until 6:00, but today we do! Ryan goes in to get him while I pump for a couple of minutes so the poor child doesn't choke. 

Morning stretches

6:30 am- He's done eating and Daddy takes him to the living room to play for a while before he leaves for work.  Eli is very generous with his smiles these days, but is still pretty stingy with his laughs.  He saves most of them for his daddy in the morning and at lunch time.

7:45 am - Eli and I have spent the last 30 minutes playing and reading books and now he's getting a little cranky which means he's tired.  I set him in his bouncy seat (and buckle him in because the kid could wiggle across the room if I let him) and give him his paci.  We have this special paci that automatically causes his eyes to get heavy when you stick it in his mouth.  It's awesome :)  I head to the kitchen to clean up my breakfast stuff mainly because if I'm within eyesight he'll watch me instead of fall asleep.  It's not long before I hear silence and find him fast asleep.  So now I must decide:  be productive or nap.  Today it's productive....tomorrow it will probably be nap.

Sleepy baby

9:50 am- Eli starts to stir so I quickly clean up the Modge Podge mess I've created.  Yep, that's right, I'm working on a project.  A very simple project that I've had the supplies for since I was 6 months pregnant.  Crafts are not my forte.

10:00 am- Brunch for the little man.  He's a great eater when he's awake and hungry.  Sometimes he would rather sleep than eat, but he'll always give me a good 20 minutes at least.  We play for a little while, he poops, I change his diaper, he spits up, I clean the floor, he laughs, etc.

11:00 am- We are out the door for a run/walk.  A few weeks ago I blogged about my attempt at getting back in shape.  Since then I found out that you're not really supposed to run with a baby as small as Eli because he doesn't have the neck strength to support his head over all of the bumps.  Well, crap.  Minus one for my mom score.  The doctor said I better stick to speed walking.  The thing Doc doesn't realize is that my running pace can probably be equated to speed walking.  Therefore, I've compromised.  We only run on really smooth sidewalks and never up and down the curbs.  And, for Eli's sake, I better continue to keep my pace really slow.  :)

12:00 pm - We're back and waiting patiently for Daddy to get home for lunch.  All three of us are going to miss this time when I go back to work.  Eli sits in his bouncy and plays with his waterfall while Ryan and I eat.  E started to pay attention to his friends Pete (the parrot) and Marv (the monkey) a few weeks ago, but just the other day he figured out that if he reached out and hit Pete he would spin around and around.  Yay for hand-eye coordination development E-man!

1:00 pm - Daddy is gone and Eli is yawning/being cranky again.  Time for a nap!  He usually doesn't go down as easily for this nap.  I carry his bouncy back to his room, strap him in and give him his paci.  His eyes don't immediately get heavy - is his magic paci broken??  But he's calm, so I give him a kiss, turn on his white noise machine, and leave to clean up the kitchen.  I watch him on the monitor for a while and see that he is quiet, but not asleep.  His arms and legs are going 100 mph just like usual.  A few minutes later he starts to whine.  I let him fuss for a little bit hoping he'll calm himself down.  He starts to get mad so I go back in and give him his paci.  This time his eyes close almost immediately.   The paci isn't broken!  I head out and when I check the monitor a few minutes later, he's passed out.  As you know, he has fought his naps for about the last 6 weeks, but finally I've figured out that if I put him in a quiet place for his afternoon nap he does much better.  I usually have to go in and soothe him/give him his paci once, but then he's good to go. 

2:00 pm - Lunch time for Eli!  Same routine - eat, play, poop, change, spit-up, read a book, and then I lay him down under his play gym to play with the animals and watch the mobile.  He loves his mobile and the animals!  The other day he laid under his play gym and entertained himself for 25 minutes straight!  He just talks and laughs and has a good time with his colorful, plastic friends :)  I'm trying really hard to find activities to help him experience the world around him and help him learn.  Sometimes that's difficult for a 2 month old, but we're working on it!

3:00 pm - We have errands to run today.  This time of the afternoon is very hit or miss with his naps.  Sometimes he'll sleep, sometimes he won't.  He has slept well today and doesn't seem to interested in sleeping right now so we head out to take care of some business.

5:00 pm - We're home and E's asleep in his carseat.  I take him out and lay him on his tummy.  He stays there until Daddy gets home to play around 5:30.  The boys play a little until it's time to eat again.

6:00 pm - Dinner time for Eli.

6:30 pm - Dinner time for Mama and Daddy.  Eli hangs out in his bouncy and watches us eat.  Again, he is getting so good at entertaining himself as long as he has something to look at or listen to.  Sometimes I'll even prop a book in front of him so he can stare at the pictures.

Hey Marv - how's it hangin??

7:15 - Eli's witching hour.  What does that idiom even mean?  Anyone know?  In this instance it means our little boy gets cranky but has no interest in taking a cat nap.  At this point, we try to appease him as best we can, which usually turns into Daddy/Eli cuddle time while mom heads to the gym to work out.  Tonight is bath night so I can't be gone long!

8:15 pm - Bath time.  Yay!!! Eli LOVES his baths.  And Ryan and I love how happy he his when we give him a bath.  Pretty sure the kid just likes to be naked.  I mean who wouldn't like some freedom from having a diaper strapped to you all day?

Look dad - I can make bubbles!

8:45 pm - Time for one more feeding, a clean diaper, a sleep sack (no more swaddles), kisses and he's down for the night.

9:15 pm - Ry and I spend 45 minutes watching TV/hanging out before we hit the sack.   However, once I go back to work, I have a feeling I'll only be about 5 minutes behind Eli at bed time.

There it is....a peek into our day.  However, this post is only valid for about another 24 hours before E-man gets to start spending his days with Miss Dawn.  We feel very, very lucky to have found someone wonderful to take care of our little boy.  Eli is looking forward to spending his days with  Dawn and his new friends Jayden and Maya.  Mama is looking forward to Eli learning to adjust to new people/situations and getting some social interaction (this is what I keep telling myself to make going back to work easier).   This is going to be a big week!  Here we go...