My Sixty Minutes

Now that I'm working full-time, gone is the schedule where I could spend hours on end with Jada during the week.  Instead, I have her for about sixty minutes a day, Monday through Friday.  But it's a good sixty minutes.

It starts in the morning, with me madly scrambling to get myself ready and get my stuff taken care of before she gets up.  Fortunately, she's fairly consistent, in that she usually starts to stir around 7 and is ready to be gotten around 7:30 (give or take 15 minutes).  Just about right, for it gives me enough time to roust her out of her crib, change her diaper, put on the clothes Amy laid out for her the night before, read her a couple of chapters from the Bible, throw her jacket on, and strap her into the stroller to walk her the five minutes to day care by 8.  (On the two days during the week she's at home with Amy instead at day care, I get 10-15 more minutes with Jada, feeding her breakfast before Amy takes over.)

From there, she's either day care's and/or Amy's until about 6ish.  By then, I've had just enough to time to leave work, walk the twenty minutes home, get out of my shirt and tie, and scarf down some semblance of dinner.  (Don't worry, Mom, I go back to the kitchen after I've put Jada to bed to round out my nutritional intake.)  Our evening time together almost always consists of walking the three minutes to the playground of the local elementary school, so that Jada can spin, crawl, and run around.  (Aside: given how much she likes spinning, is there any doubt that one day she'll join a spinning class?)  Then it's home for one last diaper change, a couple of bedtime stories, and a bottle of warm milk, and then it's lights out by 7.  And just like that, my sixty minutes is up . . . until tomorrow.