Our first child had officially started his preschool on 6th January 2014. My baby boy in a blink of an eye is going to preschool now! With him away for 4 hours every weekdays, I now have more time to spend with our 2 girls. So we are in the process of establishing our daily routine now. My daily weekday schedules goes something like this:
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07.00 am : I woke up.. wanting to press the 'Dismiss' option but carefully pressed on the 'Snooze' option on my handphone alarm clock...
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07.10 am : Okay, it's time to wake up now... Brush my teeth, freshen up, change into my going-out casual wear
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07.15 am : Went downstairs to kitchen and whipped up some breakfast for our boy. Menu so far tuna cheese bread toast, peanut butter bread toast, egg mayo bread toast and oats with apples.
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07.30 am : Woke our boy up and get him ready - brush teeth, wash face, quick hot shower, change of clothes, wear socks, sit next to him, and make sure he takes his breakfast. At this point, Alyson's turn to wake up. Brush her teeth, wash her face, change her diaper.
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08.30 am : Get ready to leave the house, normally I bring Alyson along so she can see what is happening and get the fact that her older brother is not missing, just gone off to classes.
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08.40 am : Arrived home, get ready make breakfast for Alyson and feed her.
From this point onwards until 11.30am, I can be doing the following:
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Most of the time, when Alyson sees me breastfeeding her baby sister, she will also want to have her share. So, tandem nursing.
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I have also started getting Alyson to play with flash cards. Teaching her things like object names, similarities (same grouping like food, vehicles, colors, etc) while at the same time, entertain Carolyn as well.
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I also keep Alyson busy by alternating her toys, either flash cards, blocks (Duplo or wooden blocks) and wooden beads toys. Will consider dough soon (she has never play dough solo)
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Another thing that I have to do as and when necessary is handling the paperwork and administration side of hubby's IT business. There are times I need to rush out quotations, invoices or purchase orders, liaising with suppliers and clients, housekeeping the bills and statements for filing and claims later on (I compiled for a few months and process the claims)
- So when I am busy breastfeeding Carolyn or doing business tasks, I also let Alyson watch bible action songs on TV. I'm glad she enjoys watching the songs and she even dances and sings along to the songs as well. Win-win!
- 11.30 am :Time to prepare lunch so that Benjamin can start having his lunch when he gets home. At this point, I really can't entertain 2 girls while preparing food and cook. So I am currently trying this method: We have another playpen downstairs in the kitchen where we put Carolyn in when we have our family dinner there. I will gather some toys into a box and bring along downstairs, put both girls into the playpen and let them play. Well, Carolyn will be lying there gazing at something while Alyson will be investigating the toys and playing. The playpen is just few feet away from where I stand in the kitchen so I do monitor them every now and then while I prepare our lunch.
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12.00 pm : Lunch done! I have about half an hour to wind down and rest a bit after the chaotic lunch preparation (and the stress of dealing with our 2 girls while preparing lunch!)
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12.40 pm : Load our girls into my car and went to pick up Benjamin from his preschool. If my car is parked further, I will bring them to the nearby playground so that they can play a wee bit. Have so far do this once.
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01.10 pm : Got home, get ready lunch for kiddos.
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02.00 pm : If I'm lucky, all kiddos will finish their lunch by now, including me. And Carolyn. Again.
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03.00 pm : The challenge starts now. We are in the process of cutting down our kiddos' TV and iPad usage so I have to come up with some activities to fill up their day (BOTH NO LONGER NAPS IN THE AFTERNOON THANK YOU VERY MUCH) so that they will not bug me for TV and/or iPad.
Between 3-5pm, we have so far done the :
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Once they are done with cycling and running at our porch, we head back upstairs and I let them play in the water pool at our balcony. Water pool time can be around half hour.
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Then it is off to bath them again.
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If kiddos are hungry during these hours, I will either give them fruits or biscuits for tea break.
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I also keep them busy by letting them hang out in the playroom. We read books there and just once I managed to take a 5 minute power nap while Carolyn gurgles next to me, Alyson flipping through some books and Benjamin playing in his 'camp' (play tent)
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05.00 pm : Time to get ready to prepare for dinner. Nowadays I have included Benjamin in some of the easier tasks such as scooping out the rice, washing the rice and letting him switch on the rice pot. Some other food preparations that Benjamin gets to help out: stirring eggs, preparing orange juice, adding water. Don't forget the stress of handling 3 kiddos now while preparing dinner.
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06.30 pm : Dinner ready by this time. All we have to do is wait for daddy to come home from work.
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08.00 pm : Dinner done, dishes cleaned and dried. I will settle the laundry if there are any (usually every 2-3 days) and then take my bath (yes, no bath since 7am until now mmm... mmmm...) Hubby will be bullied by all 3 kiddos during this time.
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08.30 pm : Get ready for bed. Reading books or let kiddos play with daddy. And since we are still at the iPad / TV cutting down exercises, we allow our kiddos to watch just 1 show on iPad (either hubby or I choose, show not more than 10 minutes) and both dutifully complied when the show ends and they start to sleep.
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09.00 - 09.20 pm : Both Benjamin and Alyson will be asleep by now. Left Carolyn to bully me hahaha...
Now I get to rest a wee bit more, although it will be interrupted one as Alyson has been having nightmares lately so from this time until she wakes up at 7-ish am the next day, she will be waking up crying for about 3-4 times still. Yes, please don't go thinking I'm free 9pm onwards. A mummy's work never ends. And don't forget the breastfeeding on demand.
So that's about our routine so far based on the first week we survived through hahahah... will definitely need tweaking here and there. Some of the things we want to incorporate into our routine:
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Based on the preschool teacher's feedback, we will be going full steam on to cut down the TV and iPad time for our kiddos so that our boy especially can concentrate in his class and do not depend on electronic gadgets for fast thrill or instant gratifications. Currently the maximum time both kiddos get with the TV AND iPAD is not more than 1 hour a day. And we are still cutting down. We'll see how it goes from then.
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I hope to have more uninterrupted time to learn cooking and try out more dishes.
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I also hope to be able to come up with more activities for our kiddos to distract them away from TV and iPad.
So there you go! Thanks for reading my post! Wish us luck!
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