We got rhythm??

Inspired by a blog I recently started reading (http://frontierdreams.blogspot.com/), and by some issues that started cropping up around our home, we are trying to establish a routine in our household. The idea is to help the 3.5 year old feel a little more secure and maybe cut down on some of the whining, and tantruming that had started to creep into our daily existence.

This summer has been one of transition for our family. We packed up one household, moved to hotel for a month, and have since been setting up in the new house. In addition I am 33 weeks pregnant, and the pregnancy has taken a toll on my patience and energy level. The routines we had (which weren't that good to begin with) completely feel apart for awhile, and we ate out a whole lot, got a lot of take out, got into the habit of going somewhere almost ever afternoon. Now that we are in the house and setting up, I have started to cook real food again, and seemed like it was time to start reigning in some of the chaos. I wanted to do this to help the little guy adjust and feel secure in the new house, but what I'm finding is that it helps me probably as much as it helps the little guy.

I guess the other thing to point out is that I am also really still trying to figure out the whole stay-at-home mom thing. I worked full time the first 2.5 years of the little guys life, and some of our bad habits stem from the exhaustion of that period of our life.

The little guy wakes up slowly. I go into his room around 7:15 and say good morning, I try tickling him, and sit and talk a little. Then he gets up, walks down stairs, plops on the couch, and watches TV, usually Dinosaur Train, for a half hour while he wakes up. I drink coffee.

Breakfast is a tricky meal for us. The little guy is picky. I have never been a big breakfast eater, and this doesn't help the little guy. We used to just eat breakfast on the couch while watching TV. This is a bad habit from my working days. Now we are trying to turn off the TV at 8:00 and go over to the dining room table and sit down together, even with daddy if he doesn't have to be in to the office early, and eat something. Still working on meals that work, but this has always been tricky for us. We do this for about fifteen minutes.

Then we march upstairs to get dressed and brush our teeth. Again this was something we used to do sitting on the couch during the morning crunch. To get him to do this a bribe him by with ten minutes of play time before herding him into the car to get to nursery school in time. He stays in nursery school til noon.

We are a week into the new routine, and it seems to be working. The little guy is taking some pride in getting dressed, and the whining has been minimal. We shall see if he simple gets bored, but I hoping that establishing this now will help us weather the arrival of the baby, by giving the little guy something to help him help us get him ready for school everyday.