the comfort of routines

We've been falling into a pretty steady routine these days. I never thought I would think this or say this but...I have come to realize that I am a routine kind-of girl. I thrive off routine and while I do enjoy spontaneity and the unexpected, there's something strangely comforting about a routine.

Every morning I wake to Talis waking up in his crib. I always find him in his crib with his hair in his face and a look like "what took you so long mom?". We head downstairs and I prepare him breakfast while he let's me know in his high chair that he is not feeling patient and he wants his breakfast like 10 minutes ago. We start eating our breakfast of oatmeal, or peanut butter toast and milk, or pancakes, or eggs and turkey bacon (we tend to rotate the same things for breakfast) and it's as if half way through eating breakfast we both decide to be happy and that we are suddenly morning people (although we both are not). Then we clean up and take our sweet time to get ready for the day, usually not getting dressed and doing our hair until an hour or two before nap time around 12 or 1. We fill our day with toys, dancing, cartoons, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, walks around the neighborhood, and the occasional cleaning of the house (I feel guilty even for typing that but hey, it's the truth) until around 4 o clock when we both sit on the bench right next to the upstairs window and wait for DJ's work truck to pull into our cul de sac. In which we both jump and shout for joy and press our faces up against the window and wave to dad because I've come to accept that him and Talis are the real fun in this house and I'm just lucky to have them both. We play together as a family until dinner time rolls around. After our bellies are full DJ and I take turns, while one of us relaxes or cleans up dinner the other gives Talis a bath and gets him in his pj's and brushes his teeth. Then we all gather at the foot of our bed and say family prayer in which Talis crosses his arms and scrunches up his eyes and buries his face into the bed while one of us says the prayer in which he usually starts to rub our back while we pray and if we are taking too long for his liking then he starts to wiggle around and try to get us to look at him. Then he kisses us both and climbs into our bed making sure to get some jumps in. Then we all lay down and put on a movie. Lately it's been Rio or Finding Nemo and we'll all cuddle until he falls asleep. Then we creep back downstairs and DJ and I will hang out before we head back upstairs and move Talis from our bed to his crib. Every night it's the same or close to it. And I love it. Especially when any day now we'll be adding a newborn to the mix and all the unpredictability and flexibility required for that, I am soaking in every bit of routine now while I can.