Mr. Mom

With the arrival of baby Elliot, I ended up getting 4 weeks of paternity leave. Awesome, right? I'll help out here and there with the kids but otherwise thought this would be a mini-vacation. All the boys will be at school and Lynn and I can double team a tiny human. During the day, the adults would actually outnumber the kid(s). But to my surprise, it wasn't the paradise that I had hoped.

A couple days into my leave, I noticed that I was so exhausted by the end of the day. It felt like I was always on the move. Constant. Nonstop. But what did I really do all day? I don't even know. So that's when I decided to document one day in the life of this temporary stay-at-home dad.

6 a.m. Hold/sleep with baby Elliot
7 a.m. Get the boys breakfast, make and pack their lunches
7:45 a.m. Drive the boys to school
8 a.m. Eat breakfast and shower
9 a.m. Doctor's appointment
9:30 a.m. Grocery shop
10 a.m. Run errands (on my bike)
10:45 a.m. Pick up Tyson (on my bike)
11:15 a.m. Play video games (Modern Warfare 2) with Tyson a.k.a. his reward for going to preschool
11:45 a.m. Eat lunch
12:30 p.m. Mop/clean/organize the kitchen (hot mess after remodeling)
3 p.m. Pick up big boys from school
4 p.m. Help boys with their homework
4:30 p.m. Dinner prep
5 p.m. Eat dinner
5:30 p.m. Take Andrew to soccer practice
6 p.m. Leave Andrew and take Jacob to soccer practice
6:05 p.m. Leave Jacob and go back to Andrew's practice
6:30 p.m. Take Andrew home and go to Jacob's practice
7:15 p.m. Finally home
7:45 p.m. Shower Tyson and get him ready for bed (the big boys can take care of themselves)
8 p.m. Workout
9 p.m. Downtime, i.e. peace and quiet
10 p.m. Bedtime

Taking the boys to school.

Grocery shopping.

Picking up Tyson from preschool.

Playing video games with Tyson (at his request).

Cleaning the kitchen.

Soccer practice.

There are a lot of people who think stay-at-home parents have it easy since they don't go to "work". Rubbish. I was never the one to think that but I do have more appreciation for what they do.

I'm pooped.