Catherine is the co-founder of Tot Spots, Australia’s largest free online directory of baby and child related amenities. This new site has been created by herself and another mum and their mission is to find and list every publicly available venue in the country that has amenities for babies and young children – from the nearest nappy change table to manage poo-nami type events, to after-hours pharmacies for when Saturday Night Fever hits, and everything in between. She’s also the mum of a one year old (which makes her day job seem like a snack by comparison).
Today she is sharing a typical day in her life with her 13 month old son. If you have missed the previous post in this series you can find it here.
A Day in the Life of Master Miggins, Aged 13.5 Months.
I must preface this post by letting you know that I’m typing it on my laptop at the kitchen table. My laptop is piled high on a stack of Peppa Pig books (that’s my working from home OHS covered). I have next to me a gorgeous bunch of flowers (rare), a cup of tea, a chocolate digestive biscuit (okay, three) and a video monitor which is oozing static as Miggins* (aged 13.5 months) doesn’t like to nap without his white noise (we refer to it as his “Sounds of the Ocean”) turned up on full. Walter (our slightly neurotic sausage dog) is also napping in his basket nearby. Serenity now.
Post baby, I work from home on a website called Tot Spots that I’ve created with another mum. During nap time I usually try to squeeze in some work, but today I am preparing this blog post to share with you a typical day in our household. I figure the easiest way to do this is to describe what we got up to yesterday (while I can still remember!), so here goes…
5.20am My ‘early riser’ pops his head out of the cot and starts banging around and babbling. I watch this from the video monitor and hold my breath. A minute or two later tears ensue, and a minute after that he pops his head back down and decides to sleep. Thank goodness. (My husband –another early riser - is travelling with work at the moment so I can’t pretend to sleep and pray that he’ll go on duty…).
6.30am We are officially awake. Time to go downstairs, turn on the heating (Sydney’s in the middle of a cold snap) and begin the day with a bottle of cows milk. While Miggins is enjoying his morning beverage of choice, I unpack the dishwasher, take washing out of the dryer and try to check my emails. Ho hum. Walter is still in his bed (he doesn’t appreciate a cooler clime). My young man doesn’t generally drink his bottle in one hit but prefers to potter around with some toys and books (and tries in vain to get the Foxtel remote off the shelf – he is absolutely fascinated by it).
7.15(ish)am: Time for breakfast. Miggins enjoys his food but lately has insisted on having his own spoon and spends most of his time putting his hand in the bowl and throwing food over the edge of his high chair despite all of my efforts to encourage some table manners. Walter receives the high chair droppings willingly (he’s finally out of bed) so at least two of the three of us are happy.
8.00am: I sit on the couch sorting laundry. Meanwhile Miggins and Walter have started a new game which involves Miggins throwing the ball and Walter runs after it. After a few goes, the ball gets stuck under the couch. They ‘confer’, taking turns to check under the couch. Walter whines and Miggins yells for me to retrieve it.
8.30am: We rug up to the nines and hit the road for a walk up to the food markets nearby. Walter joins us but refuses to walk more than 50 meters (he’s the kind of pooch who prefers to be driven around in his car seat) so hitches a ride in the basket of the Bugaboo. We are indeed a motley crew. The markets aren’t big but there are a couple of good organic / chemical free veggie stands so I buy a few things and Miggins inspects the produce from his pram (and delights in grabbing a bag of cherry tomatoes). We ‘discuss’ the colours and texture of the veggies (and I try not to sound like a mad lady). Walter growls from the bottom of the pram but remains put. Coffee in hand we stroll home.
Walter enjoying his morning constitutional
10:00am: Time for morning tea and Miggins’ current favourite is a banana. He devours it while I vacuum and dance around him. My performance delights him and I am encouraged to give an encore which I willingly do (the dancing bit, not the vacuuming).
9.45am: Winding down before nap time we have some gentle music (he loves Mozart’s variation of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – try it, it’s immediately calming for some reason, and easy to download on your phone for quick access) and flick through a couple of Spot books. He shows great restraint by only ripping off one of the flaps this time. We take a selfie to send to Dad, and off to bed.
10 – 11.05am: World Peace. I mean, nap time.
11.06am: Miggins is still asleep. Normally I abhor the idea of waking a sleeping baby but today we have music class so I creep in and wake him. Tears ensue and I feel awful but he’s quickly brightened by some of my singing (at least I have one fan). Once again we rug up and race up to class (which thankfully is only a 15 minute walk away).
11.30am: Music class for babies consists of a handful of bubs aged from 6 months to walking. Miggins and his best friend Master S both attend (and love) this class but as they have just started walking they’ll soon be promoted to the 9.30am class (naps permitting). They ‘play’ the xylophone, bongo (a favourite) and maracas and we sing a variety of songs. The highlight for Miggins is that he is allowed to climb all over the guitar at the end of the class and he becomes quite attached to it, and is extremely put out when he has to relinquish it.
The beloved bongo. Anything that makes noise is a huge hit around here!
12.30pm: Time for lunch. We have a long standing Thursday lunch date with best friend Master S and his mum. We pick a new café in the nearby shopping centre and that I haven’t visited before (work being in the back of my mind - this way I can write a review and eat at the same time). Both boys sit side by side in their high chairs and examine each other’s food, books and a couple of toys. Miggins offers some blueberries to Master S and I feel chuffed that my son’s a naturally generous intelligent child. Until he abruptly snatches Master S’s book from him, showing a complete lack of remorse in the face of his little friends tears. Maybe not.
1.30pm: ‘Lunch’ is well and truly over and we are starting to realise that our lunch dates are going to have to migrate either outdoors to parks, or at least somewhere with a play area onsite as there is no way these boys are going to sit happily in their high chairs for any length of time. The boys are ‘released’ from their high chairs, and while we clean up high chair droppings (tip: always carry a plastic bag in the pram to dump wipes, food, and general baby refuse after eating out). Miggins promptly waddles into the shop across from us and poses in the window next to a mannequin, then tries to push it over. I imagine ‘how much that baby in the window?’ is and then promptly banish the thought. Terrible mother.
2.00pm: Back home and Miggins has just gone down into the cot – babbles for half an hour but finally conks out. Walter is also napping (again).
3.45pm: The weather outside has turned nasty (no surprises given the time of year). I often find the time between nap and dinner the most trying, but it’s too revolting outside to contemplate going out again. I try to think of some new things to do to keep Miggins amused while I prep dinner. I plonk him in the high chair, and after a quick snack, bring out his ‘drawing’ book (a cheap artist’s sketchbook that I bought at a nearby dollar shop – I figure if he draws in that then it’s already bound so I can keep it for when he’s older) and some crayons. A few minutes in and Miggins has decided that throwing the crayons hard on the floor to watch them break is a better use of his time so I pack them up and bring out a trusty favourite – an old magazine, which he examines, flicks through and then promptly tears up. Walter watches on from the security of his basket.
The bound book means I can keep his ‘art’ it to look back on
4.15pm: Time for a trusty favourite. I fill up a Tupperware container with luke warm water about 2cm high and add a couple of his plastic stacking cups and place it on the highchair tray. I am met with sheer unadulterated delight as his chubby fingers play with the cups and splash the water. Brilliant – I am able to do some quick meal prep and he’s suitably (and safely!) amused. After about 15 minutes of this he is also quite wet, so I decide to continue the water based fun by doing an early pre-dinner bath, which is another past time that he loves.
Cups in water. Expect your little one to get delightfully soaked.
5.15pm: Dinner followed by a quick skype with Dad to tell him about our day.
6.00pm: We spend some time ‘reading’ a few books, playing with Walter and starting to wind down. This is normally bath time but because we did it earlier Miggins just gets a quick wipe down to ensure all remains of dinner (and dog) have disappeared.
6.30pm: Time for some slow music (I have the radio on for company by this hour, and also for ambience), and Miggins has his evening bottle. Once again he potters and plays with some toys while he does this but he finishes the bottle pretty quickly.
6.50pm: Change into pjs, final story in his bedroom, dim the lights, turn up the “Sounds of the Ocean” and bed. Hurrah!
And so ends another day. For Miggins anyway. Serenity now ☺
*Obviously not his real name, but what he’s affectionately known as.
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