[edgeofelise]

I think we're starting to need more structure in our day. We don't get out much, so I need to plan actual activities for Eliza because she's getting bored. Mondays are usually great for us--she's tired from partying all weekend and the house is a disaster, so we usually just play and clean up all day long. Yesterday she was NOT having any of it; she was a clingy, whiny mess all day. I'm sure her teeth are bothering her, but I also think a lot of it was listlessness. She was really destructive, which usually means she's got pent-up energy.

I was doing some thinking about it last night and I think hours of free play and too much TV are not cutting it anymore. I sit on the floor and play with her, but she's sick of her toys. I wrote up a loose schedule for today and we're going to see how it goes. Less TV (and computer time for mama) and more reading, song time, etc.

What does your day look like?

[PurpleStar]

Big time!!

Vaughn loves structure, with time for free play and such. But he's also a whiney and destructive mess when he's bored or has pent up energy too. We have a loose schedule in teh AM which is usually free play, he like the computer so he'll sit in my lap and cruise my morning websites with me, breakfast, a bit more free play with reading, music, dance, toys and then nap by 12pm.

After nap which is usually 2-3 hours long, he'll have snack and then we have our outing...a walk, park, errands...I save whatever it is for after nap time to get him out of the house. At some point Josh is home and Vaughn really enjoys daddy time cause he likes rigorous house play and he knows he can do that with dad. But that pretty much sums up a typcial day for us...always ends with dinner, clean up, downtime (calm playing), booktime, then bed by 8-830. Rinse, Repeat.

Having said that...Vaughn is not having it. I just don't think Im giving him the kind of stimulation he is now seeking. I know that for Vaughn, toddler/preschool is his next step. We went to go check out a school a couple weeks back and he loved it! We were able to have a sit in and so he got a little taste of it and when it was time to go, he all but dug his feet in. And I know, from a couple of experiences from over the summer, that when he has a kind of structure (school or not) that stimulates his inner explorer and curiosity just right and he's able to get all that energy out - he just eats, sleeps and behaves SOOO much better. He is overall a happier kid.

How did your trial day go?

[lunarmagic]

Days when we're home all day are really rough. By the time DH gets home I am all SAVE ME!

Kate does watch too much TV when we're home, but it keeps her occupied and I'm not really full of energy in general. But we turn on music to dance, we play in her room (change of scenery), I bring out crayons (which she still tries to eat, gah). Crafts are usually really short-lived.... either it's a giant mess and I'm like, oh heck with this, or she loses interest really quickly. She plays with her megabloks and other random toys, but not for very long. She gets really whiny and clingy and I know it's because she's bored.

We do activities during the week. Mondays are usually either the moms playgroup or LLL meeting. Tuesday or Thursday I take her to gymnastics open play (which she LOVES! Only an hour, but that exhausts me, lol). Some tuesdays I babysit her best friend, a toddler her own age, and they usually have a blast. Some days I go to the mall, some days I just go to Walmart (that's usually a large FAIL), etc. Thursday and friday we have the option to go to the children's museum for a while.

I don't try to pack her day or anything, but I try to have something lined up once a day just to get out. We all do better when I manage that. A few days at home in a row and we're both clawing at the door - her because she's bored, me because she's driving me crazy. LOL

I'd love to have more planned activities for at home, but so far she's just not really seemed interested in the ones I tried.

[edgeofelise]

It's just so hard for me to get out with her. Living in the city and not driving makes me absolutely bonkers. If I could pop her in the car and go to target, or even to walk around in a more kid-friendly neighborhood, we'd go out a lot more. But in order for us to go anywhere I have to walk or bus, and I don't like juggling all our while she's fighting to get out of the stroller (or ergo, which I do on bus rides because I don't have enough arms to wrangle her and all our stuff AND fold up a stroller...but she's getting too strong and heavy to wear.) It's just so frustrating! So, we spend most days at home. I wish I didn't have such anxiety.

Today went better. We spent large chunks of the day with the TV off, which she actually seemed to enjoy. I have bins of toys in each room but most days she just wants to be in the living room glued to a movie, even though she's bored. Today she ran around like crazy and actually played with stuff. We did a little sensory activity on the kitchen floor, scooping bird seed from one bowl into another with her sand shovel. She LOVED that. But she did start throwing huge handfuls across the room and then she ran around eating it all. Win some, lose some.

[sodagirl]

Well we get up and have breakfast while talking to my parents on ichat (aka skype) then free play, then sesame street while I get ready for the day (shower pack the diaper bag etc) then either go out or more free play. Danielle - I'm in a big unfriendly city with no car too - we do the ergo on the bus. I've started letting her sit some of the time but she knows that in the ergo she *has* to be still.
If we don't go out then really it's just play time till she looks tired. We read a lot of books, dance, sometimes she gets to eat crayons then nap time for 1.5 to 2 hours. Then lunch - or vise versa if she's hungry earlier. Then we play more.
It's all very low key. Mostly centered around snacks and stories and dancing . I'm really not a structure person . . .

[LuvsGavinNJamie]

I get up at about 7:45 and get myself and my son dressed first before I go into Jamie's room. Then I get her changed and dressed and usually fill her sippy with whole milk. We take Gavin to kindergarten. His school is like 3 blocks away but the roads are kind of busy and cars park across the sidewalk all the time here, so I haven't gotten to walk to the school with the stroller yet. Plus the season. Illinois does get cold even though this year things are unseasonably warm.

After Gavin goes in to school, Jamie and I will either go get something for breakfast or go home for breakfast. If we need a few essentials at the store, sometimes I will sneak this in before nap but I reserve most shopping for late afternoon because my husband is always fine with watching the kids. He knows I'm happier when I get a little time without the kids and he also prefers watching them to having to go with me. (I do too, we tend to get on each others' nerves if we try to grocery shop together.)

Most mornings we are just at home and I turn on PBS until somewhere between 10 and 11 a.m. and nap time. Depending on whether Jamie is clingy or okay with playing and how tired I am, I will be either on the computer (not too tired), tidying up (it never gets close to being done), playing with her on the floor, or sitting on the sofa. If I sit on the sofa, she will be on my lap especially if I have a blanket. She likes to snuggle.

She's a really good napper. She goes to sleep around 10:30 most days and this is usually 2 to 3 hours and when she wakes up she is usually content to play in her crib a little while. I have plenty of time to lay down myself or get in some PC time.

At 2:00 p.m. we leave and go get Gavin from Kindergarten. He gets out at 2:15. She has missed her brother all morning so they play pretty well together for a while. Daddy gets home at about 4:00 and she usually lays down for another nap shortly thereafter. I know this seems late. Both of my kids have been great nappers, though. I think they are like me and need more sleep. The difference is that Gavin usually took a while to shake off a nap and could be kind of shaky/crabby when he first woke up. Jamie almost always wakes up happy and smiling. It's like a smile is her default facial expression. I make sure she is up no later than 6:00. We have dinner at an irregular time before or after that nap and sometimes I feed her what we had while she was asleep. It depends on how hungry we are.

Then the kids usually play until bedtime. (Did I mention that they play well together for a while? Well they still play well after Jamie's second nap, but Gavin tends to get hyper about an hour before bed and always has. At about 7:30 he sometimes starts to get more wild. Sometimes accidents happen, sometimes not.) The TV Gavin has on goes off at 8:00. The kid watches way too much TV but to his credit he usually is playing his own pretend game the whole time. We do our best to make him turn off the TV when he isn't actually watching it, but most of the time that is a FAIL. He brushes his teeth around 8:15 and I do my best to get him into his bed by 8:30.

Jamie has a little quiet time after Gavin goes to bed. She gets a chance to calm down maybe from his rambunctious playing with her. Then she is usually in bed by 9:00.

I know you didn't ask for my general routine, just what my day looked like. Pretty much today is going to be routine. We can't afford to go anywhere, not even Wal-mart to walk around. I spend MONEY when I go places. And we are tight right now. Occasionally we do go to our library where they have a kids activity room upstairs, but we live in Southern Illinois. You have to travel at least 30 minutes to get to most interesting/fun places. This town has really grown on me and I am SO much happier since we moved to our current house in August. However, not having much to do that is toddler friendly is one down side. The ONLY activity I know about is a story reading at the library every 2nd and 4th Wednesday that coincides with Jamie's nap time. Other than that, your kid needs to be in Early Childhood or Daycare to get much activity outside of home.

[icarryyourheart]

Colton gets up around 6, so DH takes him downstairs and they watch TV, read books, play with the dog, and then DD comes down around 7 and they eat breakfast, then they both get tubbies. If it is nice out, we walk DD to school and then play outside for an hour or so.

Then in for juice, snack, and quiet time while I try to catch up on work. He either naps then, plays, or watches TV. I can't really do errands during this time, because some days he naps at 10am, some days at 12pm, kwim? So I always plan on being home through the middle part of the day.

At 2pm we walk down to get DD from school. That's his favorite part of the day! All I have to say is let's go get sister... and he runs and grabs his boots from the cupboard.

After that I usually try to do errands, or take the kids on some kind of outing, or play outside again.

At 5pm I start dinner, they run around and get crazy, then we eat and afterwards have quiet time.... TV, books, whatever. Then tubbies again and bed around 7:30pm.

When DD was little, I was able to get out and about a lot more because I wasn't freelancing as much, DH worked a more "normal" schedule, and I didn't have two kids' schedules to accommodate. If Colton could nap later in the afternoon, we'd have more free time mid-day to do music class and playgroup and stuff. But he needs to nap earlier so that he is awake for DD's school pick-up at 2pm.

I feel bad sometimes that Colton has had less "exposure" to the world, LOL. I used to take DD to coffee houses and the library and malls, and parks every single day. Now if I get both kids out somewhere 1-2x a week it's good.

[sarahp]

Zoe gets up between 7-7:30, and DH gives her breakfast while I shower. He usually leaves for work around 8:30-8:45, and we hang out getting ready for the day. Mornings we try to do an activity - a local Jewish family centre has a fun open play thing on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so we might do that, or go to one of the places we have memberships for (Children's Discovery Museum, kids zoo etc), have a play date, or just run errands. Some days we'll just go for a walk around the neighbourhood and look at leaves and whatever else we can find.

Zoe has lunch around 11:45/12 and is generally in bed for a nap by 12:30. She wakes up around 2:30/3, and we normally have snacks and go to the park right behind our house. There's between 5-7 other families with young kids who live in the area who we know well who are usually at the park from around 4pm, so there's always kids to play with and parents to talk to.

We've been discovering the joy of stickers lately, so we've been doing art "projects" with stickers and crayons which will keep Zoe entertained for a fair while.

We always get out and do something every day though, and we don't really do tv, so we spend a lot of time just pottering around exploring "stuff". Some days we just get the light rail into downtown, wander down the streets, and stop in at the coffee shop for a cup of tea for me, and a steamed milk for Zoe

I try and have dinner on the table by 5:45pm, which is about when DH walks in the door so we can all eat together.

[Danielle.W]

8:45 - We usually wake up and eat first breakfast...a frozen waffle lol. I sleep while they watch 1 show. Then I get up and we all make real breakfast.

Then we clean up the house...this is usually me while they free play...but I try to include them so their interested IF we're going out other than the gym this is the time we do it. If I need longer to shop or whatever we go to the gym at this time and go out after snack time.

We all make lunch together, and eat it together.

Lyric takes a nap and Valley watches a movie.

Lyric wakes and they watch 1 show together.

We all make snack and eat it, and they play while I get ready.

We go to the gym and they play in the "daycare" there for an hour. (or occasionally go shopping)

Then we come home and all cook dinner/pick up the house again

Eat dinner then free play then stories then bed.

We're rather boring I guess

[LuvsGavinNJamie]

Nothing out of the norm to do today. I have Sesame Street on for Jamie and I'm killing time on the computer until she either yanks me away or it is nap time for her.

[survey77777]

Our day looks...random.

He usually wakes up between 8:30 and 9:30. His dad gets up with him if he's home that day and I try to get some sleep since I have crazy hard times falling asleep and we still do the nursing thing at night. I am a tired mama.

Around 10:30 or so...G comes back to bed for a nap. He sleeps for about 2 hours. If I've been up or if I'm not feeling so hot I also nap (there is a LOT of napping around here). When he gets up we usually go out and visit someone or do something. Walk to the park, shopping, library, walking, visiting with his cousins or grandmother etc. Then it's time for more napping. This one usually happens with his dad and I attempt to accomplish something and make dinner.

Then they're up and it's dinner time, bath time, play time, books, bed.

That's the rough outline but I'm definitely not a stickler for a schedule (not that I think this is necessarily a good thing). There is a lot of just hanging out and playing on the floor, setting up train tracks and then ripping them apart. We usually try to get out at least once a day and do a lot of walking around. Sometimes we go to the pool and swim in the morning. Sometimes we're just so d* tired that we just stay home and chill alllll day long. We just wing it. We have a lot of doctors appointments etc. so flexibility is a necessity. When we were in FL we were on the go all day long and he did a lot of car napping. After two days we had to take a down day to recharge and then he was good to go again.

My days are as random as my response to this post.