Our Afternoons

For those who are interested- this is what we do with our afternoons.

Nicholas and I come home, where he plays with me - generally by walking on me - and then he gets a bottle. I tend to hope that this bottle puts him to sleep and that I can put him to sleep in his crib. No such luck with that today. The bottle put him to sleep, but if you took the bottle out of his mouth, he decided to wake up and protest. So he didn't nap. Which is always a great start to an afternoon.

But he did play well, and happily. He was excited to spend as much time as he could standing up. we went on a little nature walk around our complex courtyard. He loves the bark of trees, watching leaves blowing in the wind, and any animals he can find. There were a few dogs out, so he spent a lot of time laughing at the dogs. We always take a nature walk in the afternoon, because he does need to get outside and hear/see and explore new things. Like grass. He tries to eat grass.

Then we build towers out of blocks. Well, I build towers, and he knocks them over. Then I build towers, and he knocks them over....ad infinitum.... until I go nuts.

We also spend time reading and talking and just walking around the house naming things. In between these activites, I try to get chores done. I spend 5 minute blocks doing chores, and he spends 5 minute blocks playing on his own.

Sometimes he even gets tummy time - well most days he does. He doesn't like it. But hey - I don't like vegetables and I eat them anyways because my doctor (and my mother) told me they were good for me. So his doctor (and his mother) say that tummy time is good for him. So he does it.

So this sounds like a lot of activity, and things take up a lot of time. But here's the thing that takes up the most time - feeding him.

I thought boys didn't turn into never ending bottomless pits until they were teenagers. Nicholas has turned into one now. If he sees food - he wants it. I gave him a piece of lettuce from my salad today and he ate it - not well - but he ate it. I give him babyfood mixed with baby cereal in the hopes that it lasts longer. He eats Cheerios, bananas, and pears. Yet, 20-40 minutes later he's hungry again and wants a bottle. So I spend a lot of the afternoon feeding him. A lot of time.

Eventually he tends to take a nap. Sometimes you can put him down, and sometimes you cannot. Today he was so cute. I tried to put him down, and he objected - strenuously (who knew that such a small human could make such a big noise! Not that he's that small, but relatively). So I picked him up and he cuddled right into me and latched onto my shoulders with his hands as if to say, "I'm not going anywhere." So he got to nap on me, and I spent an informative hour watching the History channel.

Anyways, that is how our afternoons tend to go.