Daddy Daycare

Raise your hand if you've eaten half a box of Cheez-Its today!

::Raises hand and hangs head it shame::

So after throwing D under the bus yesterday, I thought I'd give him props for how awesome he is doing at watching Grace lately.

We went ahead and planned our move early to get settled before the Christmas holiday. Many posts or units seem to have a block leave schedule, that involves most people being gone between mid-December and after the New Year. It was a good enough excuse to leave early, so D took a lot of leave and is "off" until mid-January. His course doesn't start until January 30th. This left us with options when it came to childcare and since there is a waitlist for full day on-post daycare, we decided that we'd use hourly care on a case-by-case basis (you have to schedule daily and can get your child in if there is room). Hourly care was great the first week we were here unloading boxes. D would drop of Grace around 8 am, go to the gym, come home and do house things and then pick her back up by lunch time.

After week one I had her scheduled for a few more mornings, but D decided he didn't need to drop her off for that long anymore, so now, each morning, we all get up and do breakfast, I start work and they get dressed and leave for the gym together. They have hourly care at the gym on a walk-in basis, so D works out and Grace plays. They get home around 10 am and play while I work and then make lunch around 11. Grace is on an great nap schedule now, where she goes down shortly after lunch time and usually takes a 2 hour siesta. It. is. awesome. This is when D gets to run errands, do more house stuff and I "watch" while she sleeps. Aka, work and listen out for her in case she wakes up early. After she wakes they have snack time, and I usually join, haha. Then there is more playing, whether it be reading books or taking a wagon ride with the pups outside. I wrap up my day around 4:30 and then it's family time!

Daddy Daycare has it's schedule down. Mommy Work at Home does not. It's tough having D and Grace around and not getting distracted. I am getting better at doing a quick clean sweep around the house while they are out in the morning. I prep dinners, make beds, throw in a load of laundry, and just do a general straightening up...cause it's even tougher to work at home in disarray. The part of my schedule that has been the most difficult to nail down is time to work out...cause come 4:30, D is ready for a break and I am dying to play with them rather than drag my butt to the gym. He has been great about encouraging me to go still, but I have a longer commute to post now, so by the time I get back home it's 6pm and time for the dinner rush. I've toyed with waking up to do the Shred or another video, but I need my runs. They keep me sane. Plus, with two potential half marathons early next year, I need to start training- like yesterday.

I know things will get easier once I Daddy Daycare closes down and D is back to work. I won't feel the mom guilt all day, every day. I'm also considering changing my schedule to 7-3:30, so I have more time before dinner to fit in runs.

Any suggestions? How do you all fit everything in and still have a life?

xo,
H

P.S. Grace LOVES being at home with us. She's more chatty, just happier in general, and it's nice to get more quality time in with her and D. I have a feeling come January 30th, dropping her off at daycare will be just as hard as the first time when she was only 7 weeks old. (Wahhhh.)