A day in the life

Metrodad was kind enough to give me a little shout-out this week, a loving "where the hell are you?" after a bit of blogging silence.

Adding a new past time to one's life is sometimes a challenge, but never moreso that when new parenting has occupied every waking moment -- at least the moments that are not filled with the needed bread-winning to provide the roof over baby's head and milk in baby's sippy cup.

A day in the life of Vampdaddy looks a little something like this these days:

3:00am - Awakening of Vampbabby. At fifteen months he his still not sleeping through the night -- although he certainly is much better than early on. Our current challenge is that, when the overnight awakening happens, the last thing on his mind is a return to restful sleep in his own crib. The only satisfaction seems to come by moving into our bed, which he quickly takes over with his kicking and squirming. Sleep for me between that time and wake up is fleeting at best.

6:00am - Day begins. There is no need for a 6am alarm clock in our house any more, since Vampbaby is awake and ready to begin the day with a level of day-to-day consistency that is mindboggling.

6:05am - Feeding the Monster. I told someone recently that our son is a bit like Rainman -- if you deviate from the schedule, hellfire will rain down upon you. In our son's case, you can set your clock to his appetite, so breakfast is priority one. Taking after dad, my son is not a morning person -- not until he gets his banana and cereal, anyway!

7:30am - The great escape. Depending on the forthcoming work day, either my wife or I tosses Vampbaby in the car and gets him to school, while the other gets ready for the day in a few moments of peace and quiet.

8:30am - Save the world. I run a non-profit, so my work day involves grant writing, relationship building, money seeking, meeting going, plan making, phone chatting, and computer using. Remember the days when they promised that computers and email would revolutionize the modern work day? It certainly has, as I spend most of my day reviewing emails...The actual work happens in between.

5:00pm - World saved, return to halls of justice. Retrieval of Vampbaby is always an uncertain moment. Has he had a good day? Did he nap? Did he eat? Depending on these factors, the evening can either take a relaxing or stressful turn. The fun is in the surprise!

6:00pm - Feeding the Monster, part 2. Dinner. See 6:05am for details.

7:00pm - Tub time. All of the stress of the day melts away...At least for Vampbaby! Mommy and I just work to make sure that too much water doesn't end up on the floor and that we can get through the bath without Vampbaby pooping in the tub. Yuck.

8:00pm - Vampbaby Sleeps. Hopefully, anyway. Lights out, a little cd of whale music, and two books lull him to unconsciousness.

8:15 - Parental down time! This involve mindless zoning on the couch, watching Law and Order (because its always on some channel). The one time where we have to unwind and stare at each other, remembering, "hey. don't I know you? Aren't we married or something?" Of course, this down time is often interrupted by other duties required to keep the world from exploding, like paying bills and dealing with work that one of us had to bring home.

11:00pm - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It is a bit more challenging these days to get to bed, as I relish the above mentioned down time. But I try not to stay up past the Colbert Report's "Word of the Day", otherwise it will hurt when the cycle starts over again at 3am.

Wash...Rinse...Repeat.....