Routine Roulette

Newsflash!  Yesterday, the Frog managed to cram a foot into his mouth!  Yup, all five toes in and accounted for (once they were back out).  From the muffled grunts he was making, I deduced he was satisfied with the day's work.  Rolling, schmolling.  Who cares when you have the best toys in the world at the end of your legs!

As for today's topic - I'm not really a routine-based person, but after getting to know the Frog, I've found that having some kind of structure to my day is virtually the only way I'll get *anything* done, besides just being entirely Frog-attentive.  And while this all very nice, it can get just a mite maddening when all you do is feed, soothe, change nappies, and make gibbly gabbly noises in the hope of eliciting a laugh.  So, I have started imposing little routines here and there.  It's nice to have a goal to aim for in life, after all.

This is my morning routine:

1. Rise between 6:30 and 7:00am (depending on the volume and tone of Frog-warbling coming from the monitor).
2. Make bottle. 
3. Go lift out Frog, and get treated to happy squeal and big open-mouthed grin (awww, I forgive you for waking me up at an ungodly hour ... again) 
4. Spend about an hour feeding him.  I usually attempt a boob feed first thing in the morning and last thing at night, if at no other times.  If he's really hungry though, any attempt to stick him on the boob just elicits frantic kicks and screeching.  And then, of course, as soon as I shove the bottle into his mouth, he decides he's not really hungry after all, and spends the next little while poking his tongue out around the teat, and gurgling quietly (but happily) as he ingests formula at a rate of 1ml/10 mins.
5. Nappy change time! And usually I'll change him out of his PJs at this point as well.  I select his daily outfit with a lot more care than mine - but then, his clothes are also much nicer than mine.  He's not very cooperative with nappy or clothes changes at the moment.  It's like wrestling an octopus on speed.  I'm hoping it's a phase.
6. By this time it's usually about 8:30, and I'm dying for my morning cuppa, and a hot shower.  Since I can't really rely on Hubs to leap from bed at this time, ready and raring to take over Frog duty, I usually just stick him in his bouncy chair (Frog, not Hubs), and haul him around with me for the rest of the morning.  So he hangs out in the bathroom while I wash, then comes to the kitchen while I make that ESSENTIAL first coffee.  Then sits in a sunny patch (when available) in the dining room while I ingest said beverage, along with any breakfast I've made, and finally ...
7. Reading time!  Well, I read my book, and he chews on his, but sometimes I'll haul him onto my lap, and we'll look at some pictures in one or the other of his books.  
8. Last thing before he's handed over to his dad is the remainder of his bottle that he spurned in point 4. This of course has the added entertainment value (for me) of increasing the chances of blappage* when his dad gets him into the pack.  Look, I have to take my fun where I find it, alright?

As for the rest of the day and routine?  I wish.  I'm just starting to try and get more concrete nap times and feeding times, in the hopes that when he's neither eating nor sleeping, the Frog will be entertained enough watching me weed or sweep or do any of a number of small chores that aren't going to do themselves, you know.

And on a totally unrelated note.  And to make this post ginormous, I thought I'd add in some food stuff.  I've been keen to eat a few more veggie meals a week, and we have a pretty neat cookbook which has removed meat without removing the fun from food.

This was tonight's menu:  Mushroom and Asparagus Pie from the wonderful 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' by Mark Bittman

Very easy to make, even for someone who was the sole carer of the Frog ALL DAY, WITHOUT A BREAK (feeling sorry for myself? Yeah, a bit).

Ingredients:
1.5-2 punnets of mushrooms (I used swiss brown), sliced
4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt & pepper
1 bunch asparagus, lightly steamed and chopped
1 cup grated cheese (recipe called for provolone, but we didn't have, so I used edam)
Around 12 fresh basil leaves
pastry (recipe called for filo, but I couldn't be bothered and just used puff, but I'm sure you could also make your own if you had time to kill).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Stick some oil/butter (as much as matches your diet plan) into a frying pan and heat
Chuck in mushrooms, and let sizzle a little while, then add crushed garlic.
Add salt and pepper to taste
When mushrooms are tender, take off heat, and when a bit cool, stir in asparagus, cheese (errr... diet?), and basil
Create your pastry shell how you like it (I just lined my pie dish with puff pastry, poured the mushroom mix in, and capped it off with another sheet).
Stick in oven and bake for about 30 minutes, till pastry looks good enough to ... well ... eat.

This was actually very quick and easy to make - and yummy to boot - and I'm keen to find more recipes of a similar ilk.  Anything that works, I'll post.  Also anything that flops spectacularly.



* Blappage (n) the milky vomit emitted by our Frog. Can be curdled or fresh.  Also verb form "to blap" as in "He just blapped all over my jacket, my t-shirt, down his pants leg, and people are giving me disgusted looks!"