Recently a co-worker asked me how I manage to cook dinner, on the days I work. So I thought I would give a little play by play of a typical night after work. I usually arrive home at around 6:15pm. As soon as I walk in the house, usually Zane and or Holden are right there, ready to start vying for my attention. Zane will start asking me to play a game with him, or tell me about his day, or tell me about the book he is reading, mind you my hands are still full of my things at this point. Holden will usually just start calling out “Daddy”, and want me to participate in what ever he is doing. I find out any necessary information from which ever one of the nannies is working, like Holden had a good day, or Holden had bad day, or Zane was being a punk today. After she leaves, I put my lunch stuff away, wash any dishes from my lunch, and ask Zane what he wants for dinner. I would ask Holden, but he would proceed to name an item, like “Mac and Cheese”.
Then I would say, “You want Mac and cheese for dinner?” to which he would reply
“No!”. Then he would name his next thing “Quesadilla!”
“Okay buddy you want a quesadilla?”
“No!”. This would go on until we cycled back to Mac and Cheese, and continue all night. Zane and Holden tend to like the same things, the one notable exception is that Zane is not fond of quesadillas, and Holden loves them. Personally, I don’t know how you can go wrong with melted cheese on a crisp flour tortilla, but to each his own, right? So Zane will pick something he wants to eat, and this is where the bargaining comes in. If Zane picks something that requires me to do a lot of cooking and cleaning, I tell him he will need to watch Holden. Depending on his mood, how much he is craving the desired food, and his willingness to help, he will say okay happily, or he will change his meal wants to something more simple. As it is well documented by this blog, I have some OCD tendencies too. I won’t leave the kitchen till every dish is washed. Whatever Zane picks, he has to suffer the repercussions of that choice. Usually after dinner, they both go outside and play anyways, and I do the dishes. While I am doing the dishes, Holden usually starts calling me to “I want push you please”, or “Daddy, come on”. The first being to push him on the swing, the second means any number of things, from going for a “walk”, to scootering with him. The other night, Holden decided he wanted to scooter around the block, while I jogged along side him. He and Zane thought this was great fun, as Zane was also on a scooter. I, on the other hand, was trying to jog with a full stomach, waiting for the untimely reemergence of my dinner. After going all the way around once, Holden and Zane decided a second time was in order. They tried for a third, but I was pretty sure dinner was coming up, if we attempted another pass. So essentially after dinner the boys get to play until it is time to get ready for bed.
I have to start getting Holden ready for bed around 7:10pm. This is not a super strict number, but Holden loves to call audibles at bed time. Lately he has been really into taking showers, often taking two a day. So when I am trying to get him ready for bed, he will often decide that he wants to take a shower. I don’t have a problem with it, I think it mellows him out a bit, and gets him dressed for bed when he gets out. Which seems to also put him in the mood for sleeping. However, Holden’s bus picks him up at 6:30am, and they want him out, and ready 5 minutes early. So I wake Holden at 5:50am. I feel it’s important he is in bed by 8:00pm. Before discovering the amazing supplement known as melatonin, which by the way, I intend to marry, and spend the rest of my life in bliss with, bed time was not a fun time. Holden would fight sleep anywhere from 2 to 4 hours a night. This made for very long exhausting nights for Zane and me. I wake up at 3:00am and workout while the boys are asleep, so having Holden take until 11:00pm or later to go to sleep could be very frustrating. As I said, he has to wake up early himself too, so he needs his sleep. Thankfully that is resolved. So at around 7:10 we start getting him ready for bed, which consists of drinking his melatonin in juice, going to the bathroom, and brushing his teeth. You would think that would only take about 5 minutes, but Holden always finds a way to stretch that out. This is the point in the night where he might decide he wants to take a shower. He may get all the way in bed, and decide he needs to go to the bathroom again, even though he just did 5 minutes earlier. So I humour him for a while, but always gently nudging him towards the bed room. When he finally gets in bed, we put on a video, and sleep usually ensues. Of course, picking a video often turns into a battle between Zane and Holden, usually with Holden prevailing. I have to admit though, I think the only person that can actually change Holden’s mind about anything, is Zane.
Then I would say, “You want Mac and cheese for dinner?” to which he would reply
“No!”. Then he would name his next thing “Quesadilla!”
“Okay buddy you want a quesadilla?”
“No!”. This would go on until we cycled back to Mac and Cheese, and continue all night. Zane and Holden tend to like the same things, the one notable exception is that Zane is not fond of quesadillas, and Holden loves them. Personally, I don’t know how you can go wrong with melted cheese on a crisp flour tortilla, but to each his own, right? So Zane will pick something he wants to eat, and this is where the bargaining comes in. If Zane picks something that requires me to do a lot of cooking and cleaning, I tell him he will need to watch Holden. Depending on his mood, how much he is craving the desired food, and his willingness to help, he will say okay happily, or he will change his meal wants to something more simple. As it is well documented by this blog, I have some OCD tendencies too. I won’t leave the kitchen till every dish is washed. Whatever Zane picks, he has to suffer the repercussions of that choice. Usually after dinner, they both go outside and play anyways, and I do the dishes. While I am doing the dishes, Holden usually starts calling me to “I want push you please”, or “Daddy, come on”. The first being to push him on the swing, the second means any number of things, from going for a “walk”, to scootering with him. The other night, Holden decided he wanted to scooter around the block, while I jogged along side him. He and Zane thought this was great fun, as Zane was also on a scooter. I, on the other hand, was trying to jog with a full stomach, waiting for the untimely reemergence of my dinner. After going all the way around once, Holden and Zane decided a second time was in order. They tried for a third, but I was pretty sure dinner was coming up, if we attempted another pass. So essentially after dinner the boys get to play until it is time to get ready for bed.
I have to start getting Holden ready for bed around 7:10pm. This is not a super strict number, but Holden loves to call audibles at bed time. Lately he has been really into taking showers, often taking two a day. So when I am trying to get him ready for bed, he will often decide that he wants to take a shower. I don’t have a problem with it, I think it mellows him out a bit, and gets him dressed for bed when he gets out. Which seems to also put him in the mood for sleeping. However, Holden’s bus picks him up at 6:30am, and they want him out, and ready 5 minutes early. So I wake Holden at 5:50am. I feel it’s important he is in bed by 8:00pm. Before discovering the amazing supplement known as melatonin, which by the way, I intend to marry, and spend the rest of my life in bliss with, bed time was not a fun time. Holden would fight sleep anywhere from 2 to 4 hours a night. This made for very long exhausting nights for Zane and me. I wake up at 3:00am and workout while the boys are asleep, so having Holden take until 11:00pm or later to go to sleep could be very frustrating. As I said, he has to wake up early himself too, so he needs his sleep. Thankfully that is resolved. So at around 7:10 we start getting him ready for bed, which consists of drinking his melatonin in juice, going to the bathroom, and brushing his teeth. You would think that would only take about 5 minutes, but Holden always finds a way to stretch that out. This is the point in the night where he might decide he wants to take a shower. He may get all the way in bed, and decide he needs to go to the bathroom again, even though he just did 5 minutes earlier. So I humour him for a while, but always gently nudging him towards the bed room. When he finally gets in bed, we put on a video, and sleep usually ensues. Of course, picking a video often turns into a battle between Zane and Holden, usually with Holden prevailing. I have to admit though, I think the only person that can actually change Holden’s mind about anything, is Zane.
If anyone cares, I love this video! This is classic Holden singing or humming to himself, totally content in life. This was pre-bus time, so normally he would be more animated, and probably singing words, but at 6:20 am, that's pretty good!
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