I've decided to start writing down the things that go on in our daily lives partly so that friends and family can feel in touch with what we're up to and partly as a journal so that my boys can look back on it later on.
In general our daily routine goes as follows:
Kids wake up around 8:00
Breakfast. If we have something to do for the day it's something like oatmeal mixed with yogurt and or applesauce with some kind of fruit on the side. If we're hanging out here for the day I'll make eggs, bacon or sausage, toast and then fruit. I let them have as much fruit as they want and most days they can really eat!
Walk. Then we usually go walking in the neighborhood which is about two miles if we walk the whole thing. Josh still likes to be in his stroller, otherwise he begs me to carry him, so in the stroller he goes. Dima walks along looking at flowers and into storm drains for any water to be found and Josh just kind of sits there taking things in sometimes playing with a toy along the way.
Play. Lunch. When we return from our walk we all explore our yard, play ball or something together and then they're on their own with balls or Big Wheels while I get lunch ready. Lunch is usually 11:30 - 12:00. The eating process can take a while so whenever they're finished we head upstairs to get them ready for naptime. Our saying is " What do we do every day after lunch?..... Nap!"
Nap. Once we settle in for nap - and most days I take a 15 minute nap too - they can sleep for maybe 1 hour sometimes Josh sleeps for as much as 4 hours if we've been busy or have missed napping due to an extremely hectic weekend. If one is up and making noise it's hard for the other to sleep so I try to keep a rule that if they don't nap they need to stay quiet in their beds and either play with a stuffed animal or look at a book. The goal is for all of us to get a little rest.
Play. Dinner. After nap, it's more playtime until it's time for me to make dinner. Dinner time is 6:00 - 6:30 on most days. Around this time Dima usually starts keeping an eye on the skies for hot air balloons. We see them regularly and we all get a kick out of watching them. Two of them landed at the end of our street almost two years ago and we jumped up from our dinner table to go see them up close.
More play. Bath. Bed. When the weather's nice we head back outside after dinner and when Papa gets home he'll take over the kids and orchestrate the bathtime / bedtime routine until it's time for prayers. At that point I join them to say goodnight and listen to the last thing the kids want to say for the day.
Of course this whole routine gets thrown off when there are appointments or other things going on but this is our - when we're here- doing nothing - routine.
