At the beginning...

Just to explain real quick, I thought this blog would help me remember all the great times I got to have with my daughter for an entire summer and I stay home. It actually is making me feel guilty everyday that I don't put something down and I now I can't remember when things happen. So I will just start from here. As I remember a funny story I will add a new post.

Let's start with a little bit more background. This last school year Michelle has been home everyday taking care of Maggie and the apartment managing stuff. Every morning she would wake up with me and while I would shower she would pack a hearty lunch, get breakfast ready, feed Maggie and get my clothes figured out. We would eat breakfast together and then I would be gone for up to 18 hours some days! Michelle did this 5 days a week for 32 weeks this school year. You can't ever repay someone for that kind of service, but I'm starting to learn how hard of a job it really was and Michelle is only gone 20-25 hours a week.

Day 1:
Alarm at 5:45! You've got to be kidding me, who wakes up at 5:45 when they don't have school or work? I do. Time to roll out of bed, start packing Michelle's lunch, pray that Maggie sleeps a little longer, prepare breakfast, open my eyes, find the a suitable container for Michelle's lunch (I ended up using a small insulated pouch from Similac that is made for taking bottles, but there was no way I was going to let Michelle use my HSM lunchbox. What if it got lost?), eat breakfast with Michelle and send her on her way to her first day of classes.

The next thing I knew I was awakened by a hungry little girl needing a diaper change. I quickly ran into Maggie's room and changed her diaper and carried her into the kitchen to prepare a bottle. This girl loves her bottles. When she's hungry and she sees a bottle she starts this really excited squeak, laugh, pant then cry until it is in her mouth while trying frantically to grab the bottle. I learned very quickly to find a place to set her down, then go into the kitchen and prepare the bottle before she sees it. That first time I wasn't smart enough to place her elsewhere and tried to make the bottle while holding her in my arms. She threw a fit and a few punches at me while trying to get the bottle out of my hands. Water was everywhere and I barely got formula in and the lid on before she pried the bottle out of my hands.

I set her down in the living room to drink her bottle and dashed for the shower because our office for the apartments opens at 8am and it was already 7:50. Michelle warned me that the days you are not ready is when someone comes knocking at the door and I didn't want to be caught with my shirt on backwards because I was so frantic to put some sort of clothing on. I was able to take a quick shower and get dressed when I remembered I left Maggie in the middle of the floor with a bottle.

I quickly returned to the living room to see Maggie about 10 feet from her bottle trying to reach some extension cords by our air conditioner. She was caught and the look on her face was priceless as she realized that I didn't want her playing with the cords.

The rest of the day was usual routine and she actually followed her nap schedule well. After surviving day one I realized this wasn't going so be such a bad summer after all.

27 April 2010