Weekends with my boy

It's been at least 5 weeks hubby has not been around as he's away for work. With the home assistant off in the weekends, it's just me and my son in the house. Though it is very tiring to spend time with one busy active little kiddo, I actually look forward for this just-u-and-me time at every end of week :) ... well ok, actually by the end of saturday, i am also soooo... looking forward for my maid to come back the next day afternoon, at least to clean up the house and give me that 'me' moment break ;p

So, here's how we've spent our 2-back-to-back days together:
Waking up: he wakes up first (obviously) and mama always tries to steal more sleeping time, but usually fails miserably as the kid starts playing & tries to catch attention of the mum :)
If I'm still so sleepy, I'll just breastfeed him first, so I can buy more time before i fill myself up with enough energy to make him his breakfast :)

After shower and play, if he's sleepy, he will sleep. Otherwise, I will pick him up and off we go to do the weekly groceries. But usually he does need his morning nap, so I will wait for him to have proper nap (& then followed by lunch), before I take him to the super/hypermarket.

Supermarket shopping with him, means him on the stroller, big shopping bag hung on the stroller, and the heavier shopped stuff put in the stroller basket underneat the seat. It's all about balancing & gravity. I had to remind myself to be careful and not to spontaneously just pick up my kid out of the stroller when he cries, as the stroller may just topple down once he's taken out, as it did happen for the first 2-3 times I picked him up :) He doesnt really last being in the stroller for more than 45 mins.. unless he managed to fall asleep, which is quite rare. So usually i will have to pick him up (boy he's getting heavy) and after 10mins carrying him, I try to put him back cause otherwise my back will break! :P.

In the first few weekends, undaunted, I brought him to malls further away from home, as mama not only wanted to do groceries, but also some real shopping ;p But since he always cries on the back and forth trip in the car seat, I decided I dont want to really go thru it anymore (listening to his cries while i have to drive and focus on the road doesnt go well with my nerves). So after a while, I opted to only go to nearby supermarket/malls, obviously with more limited shopping choice (in terms of non-groceries).
Something 'clicked' in him though 2 weekends ago, it was by accident. Usually the carseat is left in the car and i will only strap him there in the car. But this time, the car seat was at home, and so i attach him to the seat and then I put him & carseat on the stroller (this travel system works, yeay!). He had this puzzled look when he was on a car seat but on a stroller, but i knew he enjoyed it, since he enjoys being put in the stroller (at least for not too long), it tells him he's off for an adventure :) ! And so, once we reached the car, i just had to move the carseat along with him inside to the car, so he didnt experience that 'strapped' feeling all over again. Then he started enjoying the car ride, like he's been enjoying his stroller rides... So from that moment on, he figured it's not such a bad thing to be put in the car seat (if i may read his mind)... he still cries on the trip back though, but it's really due to he's sleepy and want to catch another nap. Usually by the time we get home, he will already fall asleep which always happen only after the car reach our carpark! yeah, i still have to endure for his cries during the drive home, but it's not as bad as before.

In the afternoon, I will bring him out of the house for either some free-gym in the apartment's playground (he loves climbing up the slides & by now he has figured it's fun to go down on it too) or (if there is enough sun and i'm fit enough) i will bring him for a swim (which he looovvvess even more). Swimming is actually also my trick to get him sleep quite fast at night, so i can do other stuff while he's asleep, but it always ends up that i also get tired from swimming, hence means quick dozing off for me too.

Then dinner is around 6-7, bathe (or 3rd bath if he already took a 2nd bath after swim) before some play time, book reading (more of me reading, and him rummaging thru the pages), crawling around (and this includes me crawling too to chase him hehehe), listening to him babble and try to respond accordingly (with real words that try to rhyme his), nursing... then he goes to lullaland. Phew... that's done for the day! I will either doze off with him or spend some time browsing the internet. When the weekend is about to start and while I hurrily pack home from office, I actually always vow to do some office work in the weekend when he's asleep, but most of the time this fails miserably.

Sundays, by this time either i have no more pre-cooked food for lunch or too lazy/tired to cook, i will bring my son out to accompany me eating out. He enjoys sitting in a cafe/resto where there are other people he can observe. So usually i will bring him out after i'm done feeding him, so i can have my peace filling up my own tummy, while his is already filled :)

Feeding him is tantamount to a mess party in the house! I do let him touch the spoon (I have 3 spoons ready everytime i feed him), sometimes he dips his fingers into the bowl tryting to touch the food, then he will spurt out his food, throw the spoons repeatedly to the floor just to watch me picking them up and he will do the same thing all over again etc... but hey as long as he's willing to open his mouth, i'm game for it! afterall, we just want our babies to be well fed right. So the downside is... I will have a sticky supermessy floor and table by the end of it. so sticky that even wiping it with a wet floor doesnt do justice, that is why i say i am so looking forward for my maid to be back by this time :)

So afternoons, will be spent game-ing with him again, while i wait for my maid to be back. I have to say that handling him at this point of time is less tiring then a few months ago, as now he is more playful and easier to entertain :). Then before I know it the weekend is already over, and I do feel a bit sad that it's already over and that I have to be away from him the next day. But I know I will be him fully again in 5 days time :).

ps: I realized I mentioned a few times on the presence of my nanny/house assistant. I am surely thankful we can have such arrangement. And it surely made me realize motherhood and attending the house at the same time is not an easy job, so I salute all mums out there who can do it all by themselves, really hats off!