Our Routine

When I first brought Eliot home from the hospital, our day-to-day routine was in shambles.  There was no guessing when this kid was going to eat, sleep, or need something.  I remember growing panicky when I thought about how eventually he'd need a bath almost every day.  How in the world would I work that in when it was hard enough just to feed myself?

Fortunately, since I work from home, my schedule is flexible.  I have deadlines and did a lot of work with Eliot sleeping on me or nursing (the physics of it escape me, but it happened and it worked), but I didn't have to be anywhere by a certain time.

By the time he was about seven or eight months old, Eliot set up his own routine and nap schedule.  After a year and a half (and obviously out of the baby stage and into the toddler stage), here is what our day-to-day looks like.  Some days are different to accommodate various plans, meetings, and such, but this is generally it.

Morning routine:
Around 6:30 am or 7:00 am, I wake up and start doing work.  Grading, answering e-mails, checking up on my faculty members...
About 8:00 am or 9:00 am, Eliot wakes up.  We giggle in bed together until he decides to climb down.  I take him into the bathroom, sit him on the counter, and we brush our teeth.
We go downstairs and I make him oatmeal for breakfast.  While Eliot eats, I put away the dry dishes from the night before and Chris makes Eliot and himself a green smoothie.
I make myself a smoothie and maybe a bagel or something else.  We watch tv and play with Eliot (as he drinks his smoothie).

Afternoon routine:
Around 10:30 am or 11:00 am, Chris gets ready for his work out.  On some days, he runs for about an hour while I pull Eliot along on the bike.  Other days, he goes to the gym.  Some days, he goes on longer runs by himself since Eliot eventually gets bored in his "chariot," as we call it.
Around noon or 1:00 pm, we either have lunch or Eliot goes down for his nap.  If Eliot naps, I do work.
Around 2:00 pm, depending on if Eliot napped at noon or not, Eliot either wakes up from his nap and we make lunch or Eliot goes down for his nap.
Finally, about 3:30 pm, we can leave the house.

Evening routine:
Depending how things went earlier in the day and the weather, sometimes we go out or sometimes we just play in the yard.  We might grocery shop at Target, go to dinner (once a week or less), run errands, go for a walk, go to a park, or go to the lake.
Around 5:30 pm, we cook dinner.  We somehow find the motivation to clean up.
We play with Eliot in the house, often with trains, blocks, or his zoo.
Around 9:00 pm, Eliot starts acting really hyper and tries to wrestle the dogs.  This is how we know it is bedtime.  I take him up and he usually falls asleep within 10 minutes.
After Eliot is in a deep sleep (this takes up to an hour sometimes), I do work.  Depending on how much I need to do, I can sometimes just go to sleep at 10:00 pm or stay up as late as 2:00 am.

Somewhere in there, I clean the house, Chris keeps up the yard, we change a lot of diapers, the three of us bathe, do work when Eliot is distracted enough, and all those other little things.

What does your routine look like?  Any tips for getting out of the house before 3:30 pm?