Creatures of Habit

Aren't we all creatures of habit? On some level at least? I tease my husband about being a 70 year old man in a 40 year old body since he has his routine and by golly he's sticking to it. He likes to eat late, he likes pizza on Friday's, he religiously watches football in the fall. I tease him but I suppose Ava and I are not really that different. We have (or I should say had) our routine and were pretty content. Preschool days, Chinese school on Sunday afternoons, China buddies playdates 2 times per month, we eat soup or nachos when Daddy goes away on business, she likes at least 45 minutes in the tub, I like a glass of chardonnay after she goes to bed. I can barely function without my weekly fill of Law and Order reruns. I even walk the same 4 mile route across the street several times a week and never tire of seeing the large trees and 30 year old houses.

Then came Olivia. Let me preface this by saying she has got to be the sweetest human being known to man. She might even qualify as the "super human easy baby" award winner for 2006. I'm actively looking for a place to nominate her. I feel so guilty for trying so hard to force her on to our schedule. Whatever that means. I don't even really know what schedule I would choose if I could. Yesterday in a moment of active desperation and trying to gain control over a household run by a 10 month old, I dug out a pink post-it note and jotted down a sample daily schedule. It includes the 4 bottles, 3 meals, playtime, and 2 naps. I have it stuck to my calendar.


This is my half assed attempt at a baby, household and world peace. Miss Olivia blew a big fat rasberry when I showed it to her. She is apparently a fly by the seat of her pants girl. She likes to sleep late and eat often. No schedule required since Mommy and Ava look at her all day trying to read signs of what she needs or wants.

So it is onward and upwards for us. Today she slept until 9am after sleeping through the night, how can I even utter one word of whine with that? (Did I not say perfect kid?) Schedule smedule...maybe we will just continue to wonder what our next hour will be like for the next several weeks. So what if I can't seem to get out of the house for more than 30 minutes at a time since she either gets hungry or tired or poops all over the place anytime I attempt to plan to set foot more than 30 paces away from the playroom. Perhaps tomorrow I will pull out the big guns, the lime green post-it notes and rethink the schedule.

Some people have asked me recently about ziplocs. I'm letting go of the schedule thing and I will talk about ziplocs and packing soon. For those of you who haven't taken time away from your precious world to hang out here at twoladybugs I was somewhat crazed about ziplocs before leaving for China last month. Ziploc folks recently wrote me a letter thanking me for the 2 gallon sized endorsement. I'm expecting kickbacks, I wrote back. Anyway, yes ziplocs are the bomb and ironically they hold "the bomb" too, if you are having to deal with baby bombs if you get my smelly drift. Heee.

More to come on my bouts with mental retardation and small ingenious breakthroughs where China packing is concerned.