Pencil Me In

Scheduling is not the same as routine.

I can do routine. We have the same thing for breakfast each morning. A jar of fruit. Some banana and a handful of cheerios. Christopher sits in his highchair and the dogs lay patiently and wait to be pelted with little round pieces of cereal.

It's our morning routine that happens at 8:00, 9:00, or sometimes 10:00 in the morning.

At night, we eat dinner as a family. After dinner, we go upstairs. Christopher and I take a bath. Kevin gets the baby out of the tub and into his jammies. We play on the floor for a few minutes, read a book, always end with Snuggle Puppy, and then go to bed. As I nurse and rock him to sleep, we say our prayers.

It's our bedtime routine that starts anywhere from 5:00 on up to 7:30 or so.

What I cannot seem to manage, however, is to have these things happen at the same time each day. Like right now? It is 11:00 AM, and he hasn't had a morning nap yet. That would be because he woke up at 8:30 instead of 5:30 like he did yesterday. So no morning nap yet means that the afternoon nap is sketchy and bedtime might be at 7:00 tonight instead of 8:30.

There just isn't a schedule to our day.

I can't say it stresses me out, but it would make life easier if I could plan the timing of it better.

Maybe when he's older. Or maybe not. I imagine there are moms who do it any way possible out there. I would love to know how they make it work.