Bella's Growing Up: Daddy Day Care (Part 1)

A Day in the life of being a stay-at-home Dad. Just for today.

With my trusted Super Dad Gear, I'm prepared for the unknown challenges of staying home with Bella. Normally, we have a baby sitter who watches Bella during our workdays, but today Bella's sitter had a doctor's appointment and my other sitter (my mom) has been sick for week now. So this will be my first time in quite some time that I have to stay at home with Bella. She's not the same Bella I was able to handle when she was only 2 months old. She's much more advanced now.

I will make a journal of my Day at home with Bella. Today will be an interesting day to say the very least.

5:00 a.m. and Bella was just fed, changed and put back to sleep. With her and Nicole asleep, this is probably my best chance to get to the gym and burn some calories and get my body going.

So... let's get changed and sneak off to the Mills Gym.

Guess what - I didn't make it to the gym. I had to get stuff ready before Bella wakes up.

7:03 a.m. Bella wakes up from her nap. I pick her up gently and quietly sing her to til she's fully awake and smiling. It's nice that she rests her head on my shoulder to continue relaxing.

I change her and walk her over to Nicole who's awaiting her in bead. Bella looks at mom as if she's a docking zone. It's feeding time!

NOW I can sneak off to the gym!

7:30 a.m. Nicole makes pancakes for us to eat while Bella is in her swing... I normally don't eat pancakes during the weekday, but with such a busy morning of preparation I have to eat it. Mmmmm... it tastes really good. I'll get back on track with my diet tomorrow.

7:45 a.m. Rod (my brother) calls my cell phone to run down stairs so that he can give me an ethernet cord. He's bringing the ethernet cord for me so that I can work from home. My wireless connection isn't secure so I keep getting kicked off. This is my temporary solution until I get someone to secure my internet connectivity.

8:00 a.m. I take a quick shower while she's swinging...

8:05 a.m. Bella seems like she's getting a little impatient being in the swing, so Nicole tries feeding her even though it hasn't been 3 hours since her last feeding.

8:07 a.m. Bella isn't having any of it. She just wants to play.

I'll put her in her play mat so that she can getting all that bundled up energy out of her system.

8:25 a.m. trying to email Nicole photos of a listing that she has to update before she gets into work.

Kiko wants to get in on the action. "Kiko... no playing in Bella's play mat!"

8:45 a.m. SHORT WALK to Mommy's to her car in the underground garage. Mama's gonna miss out on all the action. This Blog should help though.

And then head back to our condo. She's having a great time walking with the holster. Sometimes the sun hits her in the eyes and she has to squint. ***Sorry fellas - she's not directing this to you guys just yet.***

This morning walk is something different for her on a Wednesday morning.

She loves the red christmas reaf on our door and almost tries to grab the darn thing and put it into her mouth. Her hands are like octopus arms - and almost as strong!

10:50 a.m. NAP TIME in my arms in the holster. So it gives me some time to do a few things around the house like defrost some meat, update this blog, and work on my some things around the house.

11:15 a.m. I put her in her crib and she sleeps for just a little bit so I turn the monitor on...

and do a few more errands around the house. Then...

11:22 a.m. PLAY TIME as music starts coming out of the baby monitor. Bella had woken up and turned her aquarium on. She does that by using her toes like in the photo below (which was taken a few days ago).

I won't go in the room and pick her up. I'll let her play by herself for a while. She seems to be entertaining her self quite well.

11:29 a.m. PHONE CALL from Nicole to let me know Charmage & Eric had their baby.

11:37 a.m. BELLA WAKES UP and I take her out of her crib after her trying call for me. I put her back into the holster and play with her a little. I know that she's hungry since I've passed her feeding time (according to Nicole's schedule). So i start to make her cereal...

11:45 a.m. FEEDING TIME on her Prince Lionheart Chair. She tends to lean a little in here, but it helps strengthen her back while she eats. I know it looks like it's really messy, but it really isn't. She doesn't like when we wipe her mouth during a feeding, so I just wait until the very end.

12:00 p.m. DONE EATING. Now it's time to clean her up and give her another diaper changing. I put her back into the holster and rock her back and forth hoping that she'll take another nap so that she won't be grouchy from being so tired. But just like her she tries to fight her sleep. So... she'll stay awake for a while.

12:35 p.m. PLAYTIME ON MATT. Doesn't look like she'll sleep and I want to be productive. So I'm going to put her in her play mat while I try to put together her Activity Learning Center that she got for Christmas (early, I know) from her Grammy and Grampy. THANK YOU!!!

Bella just yawned... hopefully she'll go to sleep. I don't think so -- now she's trying to grab my pieces.

Here's my quick solution. Here's my handy partner - SWING! Now she can look but can't touch.

1:58 p.m. Just changed bella. She should be in better spirits.

2:10 p.m. SPOKE TOO SOON. Nicole calls and during out conversation, Bella throws a mini tantrum... This is a sign that she's really tired. Gotta go and put her to sleep fast before she really blows up.

With our trusted tool "passie" and a belly to rest on, she dozes off quickly. Putting her down is a gamble at this point. But I'm hungry, so I'll give it a try again.

2:23 p.m. ASLEEP AGAIN. Now I can finally grab a bite to eat. Hurry before she wakes up... More to come. I'm making a sandwich!!!

Nicole reminded me that we had these meatless burger patties in the freezer. I'm kinda reluctant to eat these, but I'm desperate for food at this point. It says, NO cholesterol, NO trans fat, HIGH protein, and LOW fat. Doesn't that sound YUMMY? I'll make it as healthy and tasty as I can make my lunch with the time that I have. So this looks like a very good option. A Boca Burger with lettuce, tomato, avocado, and romain lettuce, ketchup and mustard on toasted whole wheat bread. I can't wait!!!

Notice that there isn't a photo of the actual burger? Well, it was that good!!! I recommend it to anyone who's on a diet.

3:42 p.m. MY SLEEPING BEAUTY AWAKES! Sorry Jay & Nicole... I can't chat right now... I gotta rescue Bella from the dreaded wet diaper. Here goes another diaper changing. What number is that by the way? Man... there's just too many to count. That's a lot of diapers! Look at her trying to hide her face and play peek-a-boo!

After changing Bella, she seems really interested in watching the television. I can't blame her though... It's the Oprah Wimpfrey Show and they are educating their audience on which jeans fit different women's body types. I'm sure Bella will put this information to good use some day.

Daddy's almost done putting the exerciser together. Thank God! I've taken this thing apart a few times to get it right... And I even started with reading the directions first (and this is a first for me) before getting started. Go figure.

Ahhh... Mommy's home. What a relief. Bella doesn't look too happy in this photo. Maybe it's because she doesn't have all the powers she has with Mommy that she has with me.

Just in time for Nicole to put Bella in her new play set for the first time. She's really going to enjoy this. So will we, of course. We get a little more free time with this thing around.