This is not the most glamorous, but I present for your consideration a typical day around here. In many ways it is not “typical,” (we don’t always go to tree lightings), but is there actually a typical day? As you will see, it is not all cappuccino wishes and fettuccine dreams.
| 7:06 am | James’s alarm goes off. Holy tootknockers, that means Mac slept through the night! This has only happened a handful of times and is big doin’s. Of course, he stirred right when James got in the shower, but settled back down. |
| 7:06 – 7:30 | Reading. Most days this is spent dozing fitfully, thinking about the day, and yelling at myself that this would be the perfect time to get up and do some pilates. Sigh, some day. |
| 7:30 – 7:55 | Shower, get dressed, makeup. Mac is stirring so James gets him up and changes the dipe. We say goodbye to James. |
| 7:55 – 8:36 | Henry is stirring. I grab Mac and head into Henry’s room, giving Henry a couple books. Henry reads while I feed Mac. Eventually, Henry is ready to leave the crib. He gets the new diaper, fresh clothes treatment. We hang out on the bed for a bit.
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| 8:36 – 9:10 | Breakfast time. I’m irked because the dishwasher was not run last night and walking into a messy kitchen is a pain. Less shenanigans today than usual from the boys though, likely because I told Henry that if he eats his eggs than he can have leftover banana bread. The boys sit while I cook. Henry and I have eggs, as we do most days, and Mac has the rest of a jar of prunes baby food. I throw more in the dishwasher and start it on the way out.
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| 9:10 – 9:32 | We head to the living room to play. New outfit for Mac. Henry is super into the nativity scenes here. So far, I’ve seen cows eating grass, wise men marching, angels dive-bombing shepherds, and sheep eating Baby Jesus. I slip out for two minutes to throw in a load of laundry at some point.
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| 9:32 – 9:37 | Prepping Mac for his nap and putting him down. |
| 9:37 – 9:48 | Confirm that Henry is occupied and clean the two bathrooms. Henry comes in when I’m finishing up the tub in the second bathroom. |
| 9:48 – 9:50 | Refill waters and sippy cups. |
| 9:50 – 10:15 | Henry and I read. Lion King and a book on military aircraft today. It’s all toddler’s choice around here. |
| 10:15 – 10:25 | Henry and I play basketball. |
| 10:25 – 10:45 | Mac wakes up. New diapers for everyone! (Bathroom break for me.) Locating shoes, socks, and jackets for everyone and stuffing shoes, socks, and jackets onto everyone. Two meltdowns result which is not a terrible track record. |
| 10:45 – 11:55 | We head outside. I thought about heading to a farther park like Villa Borghese, but the clouds are still looking ominous and decide it is better to stay close. I thought we’d hit the playground out front, but we ended up on a “toddler walk.” This is a walk where the toddler sets the pace and we stop where he wants. Henry kicked trash.
Climbed on window grates.
And kicked columns.
For the record, the Italians approve of none of this. Italian kids generally sit in strollers bundled up to their eyeballs. Nobody said anything though, except the one lady who commented that Henry should be wearing a hat because of the wind, but she was pretty nice about it. |
| 11:55 – 12:25 | We head inside to watch one episode of Winnie the Pooh, aka the only way I could convince Henry to come inside. I can’t just scoop him up because I’m wearing Mac. I feed Mac while Henry watches. Mac and I play. I throw Henry’s wet shoes in the dryer. Henry has a meltdown that he only gets one episode and then gets a timeout because he repeatedly shoved his brother. He is uninterested in lunch and tells me it is time for nap. |
| 12:25 – 12:38 | Naptime is usually at 1:00, but who am I to question a screaming toddler? New diapers and story time. Kids are down for naps. |
| 12:38 – 12:50 | I switch that laundry from earlier and make myself lunch. I start to unload the dishwasher, but double naptime is sacred and must not be squandered on chores. Lunch today is some seriously past its prime arugula with oil and salt/pepper (I end up abandoning about a quarter of the way through), apple, cheese, three leftover pieces of coppa, and a heated mug of turkey broth. |
| 12:50 – 1:01 | Read some blogs. I’m in the bad habit of associating food with internet break time. Too many lunches eaten at my desk at the law firm. |
| 1:01 – 1:15 | Read some sites on what to do in Nuremberg for upcoming trip. |
| 1:15 – 2:25 | Write 1.5 blog posts. Post the day’s post. |
| 2:25 – 2:55 | Take dishes back to kitchen, grab a small piece of banana bread and nutella spoon, respond to email, check a few more blogs. |
| 2:55 – 3:15 | Text with my neighbor about walking to Christmas tree lighting. Read guide book on Munich. |
| 3:15 – 3:18 | When I hear the kids start to stir, hit the bathroom and go on a blitz gathering up stuff for our outing. |
| 3:18 – 3:45 | Feed Mac, change diapers, get Henry yogurt, put on shoes, socks, coats, etc. |
| 3:45 – 4:25 | Walk to James’s work for Christmas tree lighting. |
| 4:25 – 5:30 | Enjoy tree lighting and reception.
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| 5:30 – 6:25 | Walk to and enjoy best gelato ever at Come il Latte. More on this soon.
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| 6:25 – 7:00 | See someone we know. Walk home with friend, chatting all the way. |
| 7:00 – 7:40 | Peel off shoes, socks, coats; hanging out and chillin’ as a fam.
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| 7:40 – 8:00 | Get kids ready for bed. |
| 8:00 – 8:45 | Make soup from the turkey stock we made previously. Empty the dishwasher, reload the dishwasher, and do other kitchen cleaning tasks with James. In theory, we would do more chatting about our days here, but we were both kind of out of it and cranky. |
| 8:45 – 9:30 | Eat soup and do some plotting with James on Munich trip. |
| 9:30 – 9:50 | Watch an episode of Brooklyn 99 with James. (If you aren’t watching this show, you really should be watching this show.) |
| 9:50 – 10:00 | Get ready for bed. |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | Read in bed. I really need to get better here. In my mind, I only read for like 15 minutes. Clearly, that is NOT the case. |
So there you have it. A typical-ish weekday in December. Some days we see friends. Some days we go to the store. Most days we feed the kids a real dinner. But if you can’t have gelato for dinner every now and then, what’s the point of living in Italy?
Roman Reboot 
This brought back SO MANY memories. Not the gelato/Italy part, but the having two littles and filling the day with life. I used to say if we were all fed and alive by the end of the day it was a success ;). (I remember a lady out tell me Townes should be wearing socks at the grocery store. It takes a village…so they say.)
I do love when people carp on things you clearly can’t fix at that moment. Once upon a time, I was walking Henry home from the bus stop and hugely pregnant so I couldn’t just scoop him up and he somehow ran into a cactus. The prickers were all over his jacket and his shirt so I pulled it off and had to dig them out of his skin. Not a pleasant memory. Anyway, I’m trying to herd the shirtless toddler home and this rando dude WOULD NOT STOP saying how Henry should be wearing a shirt. Umm, yeah? I would prefer a shirt as well, dude. If you can magically make a non-cactus-prickered shirt appear, I’m all ears. Otherwise, let’s just give it a rest.