A normal day in my life

I wake up bright and early, well forget the bright, just early, 6.10 to be exact. Then I try to sneak off to the bathroom without waking up Sophia IF she is in our bed. If I am lucky I can shower and get dressed until Sophia walks into the bathroom. If its a good day Sophia agrees to wear the clothes that I have chosen for her, if its a bad day we have to choose a new set (this can be very frustrating both for mother and daughter, if daddy is in charge he just lets her pick whatever she wants, but she might look like a catastrophe too). After brushing the teeth, which also is a bit of a challenge, we are faced with the next pitfall, going down the stairs. Sometimes Sophia agrees to walk hand in hand with me BUT sometimes she demands that Teddy "walks" between us, you can imagine how safe that is, so I sneakily try to hold her shoulder so that I hold something in case she slips. Coming downstairs Sophia will want to put on her outdoor clothes herself and also here she might have opinions on the various layers of clothes that I introduce. Once dressed I "insert" Sophia into her stroller together with Teddy and a water bottle and can concentrate on gathering my stuff and getting dressed. On a good day we are out of the house at 07.15. By 07.35 we are usually at daycare where I undress her various layers and kiss her goodbye, off to work I go. Again, on a good day I am in the office by 07.50, I make myself a quick breakfast and sit down and start going through e-mails. I love the mornings in the office, the mornings when I am by myself, my colleagues don't come in until 8.30 so I usually have 30 minutes to just focus. By 15.30 I head out of the office to go and pick up Sophia. Before picking up Sophia I might run by the supermarket to get some groceries. The best scenario is when I arrive to daycare and they are just heading out for the park, this means that Sophia will be dressed and ready to "hop" into the car. Other scenarios usually take more time because I have to dress Sophia and she might not be very cooperative OR she is playing in the park and does not want to come home quite yet. Once we get to the car and Sophia is all buckled up and her DVD is playing its usually an easy ride home, we both unwind. Depending on what she is watching it can be a bit of a challenge to get her out of the car, but also this is very doable, sometimes with the help of a small bribe such as a xylitol tablet...Once in, unless she decides to stay outside and play, we both head upstairs to change to "fitness clothes", she has her set, I have mine. Before we head downstairs again I usually put on the laundry machine. I fix her some carrot sticks and water and open her toy drawers and start my 30 minute Tracy Anderson workout, during which she entertains herself, regularly checking if I am ready with my workout yet :-) Sometimes she rolls out another workout mat and does some leg lifting next to me, but this is very rare and very short. After the workout session she usually wants to watch Pippi on my laptop as I prepare her food, which is half prepared by the time my workout finishes since I put potatoes to boil or pasta, whilst I do the workout. We have our kitchen moment and she has her dinner. After dinner I bike 45 minutes and Sophia usually watches a DVD and plays with her panda, jumping off the sofa etc. We chat and I read the day's newspaper and various other magazines. After the biking session we head upstairs, I take a shower and Sophia takes a bath. On a good day, Hendrik comes home whilst I am biking and he can play with Sophia and make her a bath. Around 19.45 pj's are on, välling is being drunk and she has picked out two bedtime stories. We all cuddled up in our bed and read and talk about the day. 20.00 brushing of teeth, which again can be challenging but lately has gone rather well. 20.10 I lift her in to her bed, tuck her in, say a prayer and tell her good night. She has many opinions on how this procedure should be and one sidestep and we might find ourselves in the land of impossible, negotiating with a 2 year old, when all you really want to do is sit down and do NOTHING (which never happens). But again, on a good day, she tells me to stay outside and NOT go downstairs, so I fold laundry, check e-mails etc. and eventually go downstairs. By now its time for food for me and Hendrik, food and e-mails and other household related matters. My goal is to be in bed by 22.00, to be a really good person I need 8 hours of sleep, I usually get 7 hours so I am not at my full potential every day :-) If I am lucky and its a good day I also have time to talk to Hendrik before I fall asleep. I sometimes wonder what on earth I did pre-Sophia, especially since I went to the gym in the morning, before work, so I had a big part of the afternoon and the evening to?! Now, when you have two, three, four, five, six etc. children your day must be so full of events that you miss half of them?!?

Have a nice weekend!!!