Working from home, with toddler in tow part 3

You can catch up on my decision to try and keep my 1yr old home with me while I work and read how our first day went.

Im going to try to wrap the next two days up into a quick summary, as they were honestly quite the same as the first day, with only a couple differences.

Lets start by saying that the number one thing I noticed was that the days where Matthew woke up between 7-7:45am (Wednesday and Thursday), the rest of the day panned out alot better. The one day (Friday) where he slept in till about 8:45 kinda threw me for a loop.

You see, normally, during the school year, I need to have him up, bottle fed, and in the car by 8:20am to head to my sisters. This way it gives me enough time to get across town and drop him off, pick up my nephew and drop him off at middle school, and be back to my house and begin my work day by 9-9:15am. My sister then feeds him breakfast (so I dont have to wake up even earlier). However, during the summer, when my niece and nephew dont have school, my sister instead drops them off at a summer camp around 8:45am and its on my side of town. Thus, she comes and picks him up for me, and thats normally around 9-9:15am. Meaning both of us can sleep in till 8:45am if we wanted, but normally we will wake around 8:20am, and i still have enough time to feed him breakfast before she gets to my house.

Now if were being 100% honest, my sister has mentioned to me multiple times that if I would just get up earlier in the morning, that he would nap alot better during the day. To which I have replied multiple times, that Im not getting up earlier if I dont have to and she will just have to figure it out herself. (i know im a mean "boss" and sister :P) Well, i guess this is where it comes to bite me in the ass. And against better judgement I even admitted it to her that she MAY (and i mean that with only a slight possibility) be right on this one.

We did our normal thing in the morning, whether it was earlier or later. Bottle, cartoons, getting ready, breakfast, etc. Then i logged into work. Matthew entertained himself for a lil bit while in his walker. I brought a couple of toys, including a book, into my office to pass to him if he were to get a lil antsy. Once he was bored with the book, he tried playing with the bubble wrap again. Unfortunately (or i guess fortunately in my case) his lil fingers cant pinch the bubbles hard enough to make them actually pop, so every now and then I would pop a few for him and man would his face light up!

On the good day (ie earlier wake up) he went down for his nap around 10:30am and I was able to get alot of stuff done before he woke up. On the off day (later wakeup) he didnt go down for a nap till 11:30am and then ended up sleeping till 1pm, right thru what would have been my lunch break. Technically it wasnt a big deal, as I didnt have any client calls, and I just took my lunch later. But it threw my schedule off because I knew he then wouldnt go down for another nap around 2:30 like usual. He would instead go down around 4:30, only leaving me about a half hour left of my work day. And as a consequence mess with bedtime. But, as I knew before going into this, there are going to be great days, off days, and bad days. Thank god I havent had to experience a bad day yet.

Both days, lunch went smoothly. I tell ya, this kid will eat anything and everything, which makes mealtimes so easy for us. And as a plus, when hes home with me, i feel like i eat better/healthier opposed to snacking all day on junk. I figure since i have to make him lunch (pb&j, i know extravagant right? lol) i might as well make myself a healthy lunch too. I do admit tho, its a little more difficult trying to figure out multiple healthy options for lil man. Would love to hear any ideas on this, as im kinda stuck in the pbj, grilled cheese, ham & cheese sandwich routine.

After lunch, we took a ride over to the post office since i had to send off my Ergobaby carrier for exchange (absolutely cant wait to get the correct one!!!). By pure coincidence as we were walking up to the post office there was a train passing by. Matthew has started to love trains, i think mostly because of "Choo Choo Soul" where we get up and dance when its on TV. So, even though it was like 90* + degrees outside, i couldnt help but stand in the hot sun and watch as my son pointed and smiled at the train going by.

When we got home I set up a the living room as a play area for him and grabbed my laptop to sit on the couch and work while he played with his toys and occasionally watched the TV. I want to point out right here, that Im a little nervous that if I do keep him home with me during work hours, that i will rely on the TV almost as a babysitter. And I really dont want to. What I want to do is have more interaction with him and teach him things during that time. I know that the TV does occupy him if im in a crunch, but its just something that worries me.

The day we didnt visit the post office he ended up playing in the Tupperware drawer during this time. It absolutely amazes that he has no shortage of toys whatsoever, yet can be completely entranced with Tupperware for a good hour.

Then as it neared naptime again, i gave him another sippy cup of milk, and off to catch some zzzz's he went. I headed back to my office, set up the monitor, and went back to work. Of course on the day that he didnt go down till 4:30 for his second nap, i ended up working all the way till about 5:45pm when he woke up, catching up on stuff i didnt get done earlier. Usually i dont like him sleeping past 5-5:15pm because it messes with bedtime, but i needed to get some projects finalized.

So that was my not-so-quick summary of our 2 final days of trial period. Some things i need to look into more about this whole work-from-home-with-toddler-in-tow include sleep schedules (not only his, but also my own), engaging activities we can do together, and healthy mealtime options. I think that my #1 problem/concern, is that if he does sleep in, i need not sleep in with him. I need to still get up at the 7-7:30am time, if not sooner, to get work done while hes still sleeping to make up for the time i wont get later in the day. As for the activities and meals, i will be scouring Pinterest to try and find some ideas, or any suggestions are welcome!