Zoe Gooch Manual and Daily routine

Zoe's morning starts about 1 or 3am, when she crawls in Bed with Mom and Dad, squirming until she falls asleep. She burrows down into Mom's armpit.. she loves to snuggle close. Then about 7am (sometimes as early as 6am, rarely 8am) she wakes up cute, snuggly, and we may play the binky game, where I steal it with my mouth (the handle) so I can see her smile. Eventually, either Mom or Dad will take her down for her "Dora" time... if it is Mom, I grab a cup of milk (usually giving her the choice of "cold or hot milk") and sometimes she'll ask for a banana or apple... then I change her diaper and she watches 1 to 3 episodes of Dora and Diego. If it is Dad, he lets her watch quite a bit more and she gets the goods like cookies, berries, and more cookies (animal crackers, so not that bad). I get her off of the Dora and Diego thing by switching to a show she likes less, such as Seseme Street, Word World, The bus show (I can't remember whats it called, but I like it). During these shows she'll go play with her Dora/Diego Legos.

Then we'll go up for a shower.. she gets naked and hops in too.

After the shower I have to wrestle a naked... I've learned that one can get her dressed fastest if she has something to say about it.. so I pick either a top or bottom, and then two of the other for her to pick from.. I've also found that sometimes a song while diapering will work (Wheels on the bus, Black sheep, row-row-row-your-boat)...

Next is breakfast.. on lazy days (or days my stomach is not up to eating), I'll make cereal and fruit.. she pretty much only likes Cherrios.. not the honey ones (I don't feed her sugary cereal), just the regular yellow box. More typically, I make us "breakfast sandwhiches"... one egg each, broken, cooked hard (in pan with lid), typically some meat like Canadian Bacon or Turkey, sometimes melted cheddar, on a english muffin with Salmon Cream Cheese. She loves it, usually eating half an english muffin herself.. but I have to feed it to her.. she is strange about those sandwhiches.. I don't cut them up anymore, she just takes bites. Sometimes, I also make Banana-chocolate chip pancakes with yogurt as dip/topping and fruit... she quite likes them too.

Then we go play.. some days she insists that we go to the park or beach, sometimes she is happy with playing in the backyard (her pool, sandbox, bike, rocks, sticks).

I try to keep her on a regular snack schedule.. fruit, cookies, drink, raisins/craisins, Veggie Booty (a favorite).. so she'll snack about 10 or 11am... as well as whenever she wakes from her nap. We try to lunch about 12..

Then she naps at 1ish, sometimes not until 2:30... I typically put her down by laying down with her and singing a song. Anna puts her down with a stroller ride and then transfering her to her bed. She naps anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours long.

I've been trying to get her a good snack about 4 or 4:30 so that she can make it to a 6pm dinner.. although I'd prefer we ate a 5:30, but that is nearly impossible.

By 7 or 7:30 she starts to ask for her bath, or sleep.. when she starts asking it is important to get her down, otherwise she gets very hard to relax. Of course, sometimes she is not ready (due to a late nap), and I'll do bath, and then let her play for a little bit. Our sleep routine is pretty much ironed out.. Now-a-days Dad mostly does the bath. it is getting harder for me to reach into the deep tub.. if I do it, I take a bath with her. She takes a bath for about 20-30 minutes, then diaper and dressed in PJs.. then brushing her teeth (she sits on the toilet while brushing her teeth; "ahhhh" she says). Then we kiss daddy good night. I usually give her a bottle of warm milk, to work on while we are reading. We read about 4 books. I pick the books, and let her pick the order. She is now very happy with "Good night gorilla", Dr Seuess: "Hands, Hands, Finger Thumb" & "The foot book", "Down by the Bay", "Teddy bears picnic", "Harry the dirty dog", any ABC book. Then I lay down with her and sing her a song, sometimes telling her a story. She gets very clingy at this point, and I don't know how to break the habit.. I've been putting pillows, blankets, and snugglies between her and I, for her to cling onto.. but if I attempt to leave too early, she wakes up and will not sleep.. not a great habit, but it works. Its our system.

The thing I've heard about 2 year old that really works with Zoe is telling her in advance what is going on.. for the bedtime routine, I always let her know whats up next up to the sleep part. Same thing for trying to leave a park or fun task... I give her a warning.. sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes 5.. it doesn't seem that the duration matters, just the number of times she is told whats going on. Then she'll get a 1 or 2 minute warning, then a "do your last thing", then we say "good bye, see you soon" to whatever it is. With this, we've pretty much got rid of temper tantrums.. except for the ones where she can't explain what she wants.