It took me until my late twenties to realize I am not the person who will go running every morning or enjoys her evening cup of tea and book. I will not journal every night or do my bill paying on a Thursday or do every single dish after dinner. And I have tried very hard to be this person because, well, I've read a lot of magazines that have promised me it will make me much more productive and happy. Also, every successful (regularly published) writer I knows has a writing routine. But. Routines make me feel like screaming. Routines make me feel trapped. Routines kill the joy. And I am not being hyperbolic.
But, like I said, babies like routine. And it's not as simple as putting him down at the same time. It's having the same routine, more or less, every time you put him down. This can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes (the books recommend 30, but, come on!) And he naps three-four times a day and goes to sleep one (thankfully he falls right asleep after nursing at night). So that means on top of nursing/preparing a bottles and changing diapers, there's the prep for sleep. Which leaves Tim and I at home. A lot.
So we've started some routines that are not aimed at productivity or efficiency. They're aimed at embracing where we are in life. I mean this both emotionally and spatially--we are at home all the time. Have I mentioned that already?
On Friday night we were supposed to go to a Mac and Cheese party (isn't this the best reason for a party) and Beckett's weird sleep patterns left us with the decision to try and extend his bedtime a couple hours and deal with a fussy baby and a long, sleepless night, or stay home. We choose stay home, and I'm glad that we had pizza movie night as a back up. It made having to stay home and miss the party a little less bitter.
I was in the mood fro something light, and it was my night to pick the movie and Tim's night to make pizza, so I made Tim watch Bridget Jones Diary: The Edge of Reason which is not as funny as I remember, but it was appropriate payback for the time he made me watch The Conjuring.