Our family has a VERY established routine on workdays.

Benjamin typically wakes up while Shiela is getting ready for work (around 5:30am). I'm not sure what they do, but it usually ends with Benjamin being dropped off with me (still in bed) with a bottle (for Ben.. not for me). Depending on how awake Ben is, he either drinks his bottle and goes right back to sleep in bed with me, or we'll hang out for a bit and watch Nick or Disney before he takes his bottle.



The alarm goes off at 7:30am. If I'm smart, I get up just before that and get into the shower. That way Benjamin is still sleeping. Usually we snooze the alarm a few times, so by the time I'm ready to get ready for work.. he's wide awake and ready to play. This makes the rest of our routine quite challenging. Let's just say that it's a GREAT day when I actually have the chance to shower BEFORE work. Every day I tell myself that "tomorrow", I will get up earlier. Yeah right.. cuddling with my son watching Little Einsteins is one of my favorite parts of the day (except when he starts kicking me in the head).

Once we're all dressed and ben has pooped (why can't he do this BEFORE Mamom leaves.. noooooo.. he waits until his little nap before I have to get up to do THAT duty...), we head out to the living room.

Benjamin either goes into his exersaucer or he sits on his play mat and well.. plays. By this point, we're usually at least 15 minutes behind schedule, so I spend that time running around grabbing bottles and baby food and binkies and occationally I even manage to get something for myself.

The other day, Benjamin was playing with his drum while I was running laps around the kitchen (if you've visited us, you know what I'm talking about).. he was far too happy.. I should have known he was up to something. He was squealing and banging away on the drum. I was oblivious to the fact that I had somehow left my cell phone within his reach and he had it on the drum head and was wailing the hell out of the thing. Luckily he didn't do any damage. Like a responsible mom.. instead of taking the dangerous and expensive item away from the child with the drum.. I ran for the camera...



After saving my cell phone, Ben took it well and continued his practice session on the "skins".. Here is a pic of him concentrating REALLY hard on his technique:



Finally.. we were ready to head out. Here is a pic of Benjamin with his new lunchbox!



All this before collecting all of our belongings (while not forgetting the car/house keys) and stumbling down the stairs to the car without dropping the binky (or the baby). The it's over the river and through the woods to Grandma-Ruth's...