My day.

Mondays, Fridays and weekends are the busiest for me. JD stays home with me every Mon, Fri and on the weekend, I have another big kid in the house as well.

Being Friday today, I have to think of a list, actually LOTS of activities to keep my 3 yo occupied. I have been cutting down his time in front of the black box over the last number of weeks and making a conscious effort to do things together with him. The weather looks a bit overcast this morning, so we have to shelf our plans of going to the park.

Instead, this was our day moment by moment.

5.45am - Chloe wakes for her morning feed. Put her back to sleep in cot whilst I showered, washed my hair.

6.30am - Had my raisin toast and black tea for breakfast, watched the morning news, check out on the internet for Play Dough Recipe. Chatted to hubby n saw him off to work.

7.00am - JD wakes up, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Picks a pair of blue cargo shorts to wear, some cat t-shirt as he calls them, and put on a pair of Bob the Builder jocks. He had his Cheerios for breakfast and then entertained himself with his car set, some marble toys, bouncing balls and etc.

8.00am - Got JD to do some home made playdough by mixing flour, salt, water and some food colourings. It was lots of fun and we made a purple, red and green ones. We sat down, making noodles and vegies out of playdough. JD insisted he had to cook the noodle and we took out his kitchen set too.

JD making red playdough

9.00am - Chloe wakes up. Picked her up, gave her a feed, sang to her, changed her nappy, put her on the rocker to have a look around whilst her brother tickled her feet.

9.30am - Packed 2 kids in the pram and off for our morning walk. Bought bread and some other groceries along the way. JD felt really happy that Chloe could come in the pram together with him and happily munched on some sultanas whilst I pushed a 16.5kg toddler, an almost 6 kg baby plus a 10kg pram along! It was good workout nonetheless.

10.00am - Prepare morning tea. Today he had watermelon, crackers and yoghurt. JD stole half of my yoghurt when I wasn't looking. Time for Chloe to sleep again.

10.30am - Story time with JD and he picked a dinosour book today. We did counting and colours recognition as well.

11.00am - Time for play in the backyard. We kicked ball, blow bubbles, spotting ants, snails, some water play, sitting down on the garden bench listening to birds chirping, car noises and talking about whatever that came to our minds.

12.00pm - Time to make lunch. Make ham and cheese toastie for JD whilst I finished up last night's stir fry. JD talked to me about the sun coming out, birds in the garden, asking where his Aunty Wendy had gone. I popped my head out from the kitchen and saw him sitting like a "towkay" and deep in thought too. Noticed that he was clever enough to put another chair to rest his leg on.

We did puzzles, teach JD to play snake n ladders, and I had bit of break whilst he rummaged through some toys in the play room.

1 pm - Chloe woke up from her nap, all happy and smiley. Sat her up at the rocker in the kitchen whilst she watches us busy. Got JD to help me make some chocolate cup cake for afternoon tea . He had fun. He loves cooking and loves the little blue apron given to him by his wai po. Some sales person came to the door, followed by more sales calls from some phone companies, termite control, financial planning...looks like 1pm is a good time to catch people at home.

Happiest in the kitchen

2.00pm - Send both kids to nap. Both kids went to sleep by themselves and Chloe also went to sleep without a peep.

2.30pm - Did a quick sweep up in the house, folded some laundry, washed some dishes, packed away toys, search the internet for some pork chop recipes.

3.15pm - Chloe crying in her room, picked her up, put her in the sling whilst I checked my emails, read, prepared dinner, had a cuppa and ate a cup cake too. Honestly, I really should not be eating the cake as I am trying to lose some weight. But hey, it was all too tempting.

Can you resist these?

5.00pm - Both kids woke up from nap at the same time. JD was all happy and ran out of the room looking for me. He had a cup cake and we went across the road chatting to neighbour while he played with the other kids on the street.

6.00pm - Bathed both kids. Sitting on the steps waiting for daddy to come home. Waited too long, and JD came to help me washed the vegies for dinner.

7.00pm - Daddy came home. He entertained the kids while I prepared dinner. Tonight we had pan fried pork chop with a white musroom sauce.

7.30pm - Family time. Lots of laughters, chasing around in the house, daddy playing hide n seek with JD, Chloe sitting at her rocker taking in all the excitements.

8.00pm - Put Chloe to bed.

8.30pm - Bed time stories with JD. He picks "Little Hippos's New Home" and "A Dragon at the Doorstep" tonight.

9.00pm - I lay in bed, reading "Raising Boys" by Steve Biddulph at the moment .

Some thoughts as I lay in bed - The best times JD learnt was when we do things together. At this age when his attention span is still short, I have found he learns the most about colours, numbers, new words, new things when we have our nice little conversations while cooking, gardening, hanging up the laundry, and etc. And it's so much more fun because I always pick up some funny little remarks made by him.

I hope we keep our little conversations going for the years to come. Because according to the book I am reading boys often don't talk about their worries, schools, friendship rivalry, love life like we girls do. "Boys tend to open up more when they are talking to someone working alongside them. Boys like to be engaged in some useful activity whilst talking. Apparently this gives them time to search for the right words, and none of that embarassing eyeball-to-eyeball stuff that women like to engage in" - quotes from Steve Biddulph.

And if I want to be close to my son, share his worries and joys even in the years to come, we have to do things together!