Well well well! We’re here, we’re alive, we’re thriving, and I actually feel like writing something!

In fact, I feel like stealing a page from the lovely Lindsay over at Apron Adventures and writing up a Day in the Life style post! I’m considering this more a journaling type post, so please excuse this totally embarrassing level of baby navel-gazing.

First, though, an update. 19 month old Ami runs! She is working SO hard on jumping. She gathers herself and tenses all her muscles, trying to leap, and in the last couple of days both feet have left the floor at the same time. She’s so proud. She loves markers, and her magna doodle, and has recently decided she is a big fan of a stuffed fluffy puppy dog. She sleeps with it, wants it to eat with her (she holds it to my breast and says “milk?”), and lets it watch the occasional episode of Sesame Street with her. She’s a big fan of the Cookie Monster.

She’s talking up a storm! I lost track of the number of words she was saying a month or so ago. She barely signs anything any more. We are getting a few two-word sentences, mostly things like “Dada cook!” or “Ami Jump!”. For the last several months, we’ve ended each day with rocking and discussing the day’s events, and each day is less a recitation on my part and more a conversation between the two of us.

I still nurse her and rock her to sleep. I know at some point this will need to change, but I’m not ready yet! And even though I’m nursing her to sleep, she usually sleeps for 8 or 9 hours before calling out for us, and very occasionally she goes even longer than that!

So, Today! July 19, 2016. Ami is a week away from being 20 months old, holy crap.

6:30 AM: I hear a cry from Ami’s room. Yesterday, she actually slept on her own in her room until 9:30 AM, 12 hours straight, so this is a little disappointing. I go get her and bring her into bed with me and Dada. She nurses for twenty minutes or so, then rolls over and goes to sleep for a bit. She’s up again nursing at 7:30, when Logan gets up and leaves, then at 8, and at 8:45 I tell her she can’t have any more milk so she starts crying and screaming NO and, well, I guess that means it’s time to start the day.

8:45 I change Ami’s morning diaper and we head to the kitchen. Breakfast is lots of fruit, some leftover scrambled eggs, and Cheerios. I slice up a peach and some strawberries for myself and have them with some yogurt. And coffee. Ami eats in her high chair for a while and then demands to move to one of the bar stools while I tidy up breakfast.

It’s been super hot here lately, and I want to try to get out of the house some this morning before the heat rises to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, as usual, we’ve gotten a bit of a late start.

9:45 we’re done with breakfast, so I take Ami to her room and offer her a choice of romper to wear to the park. She chooses purple, which seems to be her favorite color these days—well, it’s the only one she says, anyway. I get her insulated water bottle ready to go and put together a bit of a snack. Ami chooses her white sandals and climbs into her stroller, ready to go.

10:30 (why does everything take so long?!) I open the garage door and we head outside. Holy hell it’s already so HOT. 85 degrees. I briefly consider turning around and driving to the park, but we’re already set up in the stroller and honestly I could use the walk, even though it’s only a half mile or so.

There are lots of nice moms and kids at the park today, yay! I catch up with a couple of women I haven’t seen in a while. I don’t know if it’s the heat or what, but the kids all seem to be in reasonably good moods, sharing their buckets and trucks and sand toys. The jungle gym and slide area in this park are in the shade, so guess where my kid wants to sit?

I also push her for a while in the swing. Then, she sees that some of the other kids are having a snack, and she decides it’s time for one herself. Cheerios and fruit snacks and lots and lots of water! I also wet down her neck and her hair a bit, and try to keep us both from getting bitten by ants.

At about noon, the park starts to clear out as kids head home for lunch and nap. It’s now definitely in the low 90’s, and Ami is a bit pink. I ask her if she’s ready to go home, and surprisingly she nods and climbs into the stroller! Huh. I offer her my water, and she accepts with a huge smile, exclaiming “BEEG!”

She drinks large gulps of the water and then spills several ounces on herself and the stroller. Eh, it’ll keep her cool for the walk home.

12:30 We’re home, and it’s lunchtime! I get Ami changed out of her wet romper and diaper and then set her up with some leftover ravioli, grapes, and blueberries. She asks for one of my peanut butter crackers. Sure. She also wants my water. No picture, oops.

1:15 We’re done with lunch. Ami is clearly tired. I help her choose an outfit for sleep, and she picks a tank top with hearts and a pair of polka-dotted pants. She wants to nurse in the daybed in her room, but she’s too amped up for this to be relaxing for either of us, so we move to the rocking chair. Within 15 minutes, she’s asleep, but as soon as I move to try to get her into the crib she rouses and starts scrabbling at me. I lay down in the daybed with her for a minute, and when she’s asleep enough I extricate myself.

1:40 I sit down to work on this post. Since I haven’t done a wordpress post in a while, there’s been an update and therefore a bit of a learning curve. Coffee!

3:10 She’s up! She cries inconsolably for a while, even after I go in to get her. We check the mail, which calms her for a minute, but as soon as we come back in she’s crying again. She asks for TV (TEEDEE!), specifically Sesame Street, which she calls “clap clap” because of the Elmo Letter of the Day song. (It’s super catchy, I have to admit.)

I don’t have anything planned for this afternoon, and I’m feeling a bit unmotivated after the heat of the morning. We watch a Sesame Street while Ami nurses on the couch for a bit.

When she’s finally awake enough and happy, we turn the TV off. She plays with her magna doodle, goes down her slide a few times, and spends some time in her room reading. After a bit, she brings me a couple of books to read to her. She wants to hear Good Dog, Carl several times, as well as We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

4:30 Snack! Peach, tomatoes, half a banana, and a cheese stick. Ami helps me clean up when she’s done.

We get out her markers and play for a bit on the kitchen floor. She asks me to draw her cats (she calls them all “bap”), lions, and Dada, and then she colors them in. I leave her for a bit to start some laundry.

6:30 Dada is home! This is super early for him, and I’m very thankful. He starts cooking dinner, and Ami climbs up in her learning tower to help. This means I get a little break to do some reading. I’m reading The Beekeeper’s Apprentice right now, which so far is leaving me a bit cold.

7:30 Dinner! Logan made sesame noodles with beef short ribs and steamed broccoli. Ami starts out in her own chair (she sits in a booster now) but throughout the meal migrates to Dada’s lap, then to the seat next to him, then back to his lap… Logan doesn’t get to see her much during the day, so he doesn’t mind this peregrination.

After dinner, Logan takes Ami to the bathroom, where he gives her her bath and brushes her teeth. I clean the kitchen and dining room and get the dishwasher loaded and go outside to water our poor plants, which have really been feeling the heat. Mosquitoes immediately attack me.

When I come back inside, Logan is reading to Ami. I wash my face and change into my pajamas.

At 8:55, Ami comes barreling out of her room yelling “Mama!” My turn! The three of us go back into her bedroom. We give Ami good night kisses, and I sit down in the rocking chair with her to rock to sleep. Lately, she wants me to cradle her like when she was a newborn, and she wants to hold two stuffed animals while she nurses, so it’s not the most comfortable. We talk about today (she was especially excited about the park and helping Dada cook). Then, I hum until she falls asleep.

At 9:27, I come out of her room. Logan and I fold clothes and sheets, tidy away the toys, and sit down with a cocktail to read and watch a little TV. He’s gotten into Shameless recently.

11:30 Bed, once again about an hour later than I meant. Whoops, but hardly surprising! Now, the question is… will Ami be up at 3? At 6? At 9:30? (The answer is 5, btw.)

TL;DR we went to the park, hung out at home, and ate repeatedly, with occasional screaming, some big kisses, and lots of activity. Such is life with a toddler.