Daily Schedule Series: Two Months

At 2 months, the long chunky morning nap started to develop. AHHHHH. And the middle of the night feed was eliminated as well. YEEHAWW. Yes, you are seeing correct. By 8 weeks, my lil guy was sleeping from 11:30pm to about 7:30am. On the second image, you can see how my daughter’s schedule was slightly different but still you can see similarities as well.

Don’t worry much about my 28 month old schedule. It seriously has been the same for about 2 years. The only difference you may see in her how her schedule evolved now as a 4 year old, is that she goes to bed a bit later and then makes up for it in a longer mid-day nap. Not looking forward to that all changing next year when she starts Kindergarten, but for now, I’ll enjoy that precious naptime still.

Daily Schedule Series: 1 month

At one month old, this was the best I could do in terms of identifying a “routine”. You can see that it was all over the place and definitely didn’t align with my 2 yr old at all! I was seriously entertaining between one kid and another for months before you would see more similarities in the color blocks of their schedules. *sigh* The good news is though is that it DOES eventually get there! You’ll see!  From this month on out through 8 months, you’ll see a lot of tweaking of the schedule. Lots of evolving. In the next 6 months worth of schedules, I’ll post a sample of what V’s was like when she was at that age, and then what it looked like combined with 2 kids. You’ll see that my son’s schedule was slightly different… but not by a whole lot! But I think it helps to see the differences and where it can range.

 

A Mommy & Vy Day

I grew up loving Disneyland and continued to at least go annually through my 20’s. It never gets old! So when I became a mom, I was pretty secretly excited that I had a legitamate excuse to return to Disneyland regularly. Whoooo!

This past year, I got my daughter and I annual passes (and the lil’ guy is still free thank goodness). We were going just about every other month, but with the low level pass I got, we were blocked out all summer. Finally got to go back this week… YAY! I schedule my work hours a semester in advance, so I had already designated a couple of days off from work to be our “Disney” days. Being that V is in preschool 5 mornings now, I decided that this month’s visit would just be a Mommy and Vy day. At times, I felt bummed and guilty that I left the lil guy at home… but I’m with him all mornings now, and told myself I’ll lug them both back in about 6 weeks.

Anyhow. we had a blast!! I love going on random weekdays. All of our favorite rides were 5-15 mins wait. Goodness, we did Buzz Lightyear 3 times back to back! And one of the best things about having the pass? – when we went and did everything we wanted at Disneyland, we cruised over to CA adventures for a bit to catch Ariel’s ride (one of my daughter’s favorites) 3 times back to back as well. The longest thing we waited for was for the darn princesses at Fantasy Faire – ugh – 45-60 mins just to go get some photos with three of them. But my daughter loves them, so we hit that up first before it got worse! Everything else was pretty smooth sailing.

I keep it pretty simple… Pack her a PB&J and snacks for her to munch on so I wouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg on her lunch. Let her eat it while we were waiting in line for a ride anyways. Then around 1pm when she usually naps, I reclined the stroller, covered it up and had her rest. She napped for about 45-60 mins – just enough time for me to feed myself lunch. This is always the routine I do with the kids when we are out and about. Once she fell asleep, I just rolled her right into the corner at a restaurant so that I can park it for her to nap, and I can eat my lunch in peace. ahhhhh. By the time she woke up, I was done and we were ready to continue having fun. I’m telling you – NOTHING disturbs my kids nap time. It may stray a bit in terms of the timing and length – but they still need their rest!

Thank goodness for hour-long flights!

That’s what I love about the Bay Area…. its close enough, but yet far enough from San Diego. Perfect for a short weekend getaway while toting two little ones. Add to that a $97 roundtrip airfare sale on Southwest… and we’re sold!

Last year we went to San Francisco, so this year, we decided to switch it up to San Jose. We have family there, so we saved a TON on lodging and transportation. I like these little weekend getaways because the kids get to explore, there really is no agenda but to roam around and pig out, and its not as stressful as a full-on vacay.

Now that the lil’ guy is 2, we had to buy him a seat. So it ended up being me and the the two in one section of the plane. Considering it was only an hour and 20 min flight, I actually only armed myself with snacks and the iPad… and survived well! Its funny, because now that they are older, they recognize that their ears are doing something funny… but there wasn’t a painful crying or anything from it like the infant stage. Most of the time, I told them to keep eating their snacks. Or at times, I would pinch their nose and tell them to act like they are blowing their noses. That worked as well. My daughter was quite entertained by the Skymall magazine, pointing out things she would like to “buy”. hehe. By the time the drink and pretzels were being served, they were both comfortably watching the iPad and I was catching up on my entertainment mags. ahhhhhh.

I was so proud of my lil jetsetters. They did so well on our little getaway. We even got some compliments from nearby passengers. I’m not sure if this was because they both have been traveling a couple times a year via plane since 8-10 months old. But I’m sure it helps. Either way, it keeps me encouraged to continue taking them places to explore. Goodness, my daughter didn’t even want to go home!.

I will make one note though regarding my neuroticism: When we travel – there is a lot of straying from “the schedule”. *sigh*. Sometimes more than I’d like. However, considering the kids are little bit older now, they didn’t really seem to notice and it wasn’t anything crazy. They did go to bed a little later, napped a little later, napped a little less. BUT, they had a ton of fun, tried new foods, interacted with new people, was able to adapted easily in a different home…. I mean, the wealth of learning that takes place in just a little getaway is certainly priceless.

I think outside of properly arming yourself with snacks and entertainment on a flight… the biggest tip I have for happy kids on vacay: Still maintaining some form of their regular routine. Flexibly… but maintained nonetheless.

Happy First Day of Preschool!

Well… my 4-year old finally started her new school schedule this week! For this next year, she will be doing 5 mornings of preschool. Whooooo. She was totally excited. She tells me “I love school!” and in the back of my head, I’m thinking “You better! Because you got A LOT more of it! HAHAHHA SUCKAAAA!” j/k. I’m glad she likes school. Its certainly a good way to set the tone for a life-long journey of learning.

As for me, I went through a mixture of emotions. I mean, I’m excited because she is excited. This week I kinda feel like I miss her a lot already now that I don’t have her around in the mornings. I’m also depressed because of the fat tuition check I have to write every month. Ha! But you know… I gotta look on the bright sides: I am finally getting a lot of one-on-one time with my lil’ man now (who’s 2)… and am one year closer to getting one kid into Kindergarten (aka – one more year closer to going back to work and making my money back).

What I did thoroughly enjoy this week though: all the cute First Day of School pictures that ran through my Facebook newsfeed. *sniff*

P.S. The lil guy and I just started “his”  version of school this week too! Its a parent education class for 2-yr-olds. Its what I call “pre-preschool”… I did that for a year when Vy was 2, so I’m looking forward to doing this with K now. He was pretty excited that he got to get ready and head off to “school” as well.  If you check with your local COMMUNITY/CONTINUING EDUCATION programs… you might find parent education courses nested there… and get this: they are FREE (or very low cost). Worth a try and something to do before the official preschool days come.