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Mommy’s Diary: New Schedule for the One Year Old

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Now that Kiko is 15 months, we needed to adjust her daily schedule a bit. I wrote about her schedule when she was 3 months here and 8 months here. Unfortunately, no more two naps a day! She used to take both morning and afternoon naps. Sadly, those days are over…we switched to one post lunch nap. Very sad! Anyway, here is her new daily schedule…

7:00am I wake her up or she gets up around this time on her own. Andy and I are get up at 5am, and have a cup or two coffee in us by this time. It helps us to be ready for Ms. Kiko. I feel like I get a lot of things done when I start my day early. On rare occasions when I get to sleep in till 8am, I feel like half of my day has been wasted! But, to the point at hand, I go in to her room and get her ready by changing her diaper and dressing her with new clothes for the day.

7:30am Breakfast time. After that, she helps Andy cleans up the table, and hangs out with us in our living room.

9:00-10:00am Usually Andy takes her out during this time, whether it is a walk to post office to mail sold items of my shop, going to a community center on hot days or rainy days, or a nearby park.


10:00-11:00am This is her morning “alone time”, where she plays by herself in her room upstairs. One of us is in the next room, with the door open, and a baby gate separating us so we can see each other. She likes to play with Duplo’s. Sometimes she gets whiny but we are trying to teach her to relax and play by herself.

11:00am Lunch!

12:00-2:00pm Nap time! By this time, Kiko is really tired and takes a nap without fussing. We take her to her crib. She is getting too big for a crib, but I’m not sure when to switch her to a regular bed. I still think without being caged in she will get up and wonder around when she is supposed to be sleeping. Any thoughts?

2:oo-4:30pm We get Kiko up from nap, and she has a drink and snack. After that, we do some activity depending on the day. Some days Andy takes her out for walk, or I take her out to run errands. Sometimes she plays in her the baby pool.

4:30pm Andy usually gives her dinner.

5:00-5:45pm TV Time – we don’t own a TV, but Kiko watches some DVD on the computer. She likes Elmo’s world.. Some people are surprised that we don’t have a TV. We used to, but we never watched it and it was taking too much space, so we got rid of it. I really don’t miss having a TV. We watch shows on the computer some nights – my current favorites are Desperate Housewives Season 8 and Life Unexpected.

6:00pm Bath time. Giving Kiko a bath or shower is usually my job, unless I’m out for some reason. She plays with fishing toys while I wash myself.

6:30pm Bedtime routine – it includes having a family devotional time, brushing her teeth, lots of kisses and hugs, and reading books. Between 6:30-7:00pm she goes to bed and sleeps through the night!

So this is our typical day when Andy is around. On weekends, we modify the schedule a bit. Andy has a big part in Kiko’s life. He is a great husband and a father! He cooks and does a lot of chores 🙂 We have 2 hours in the morning (5-7am) and 3 hours at night (7-10pm) of adult time to keep ourselves sane and get things done.

Mommy’s Diary 57: Ueno Zoo

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On the 4th of July, my friend, her daughter, Kiko and I went on a little date to Ueno Zoo. It is right near the JR Ueno station and the entrance fee for adults is 600 yen, which is pretty reasonable. It was great to have Kiko run around at the zoo, where I did not have to worry about cars and other similar dangers. Although she still calls every moving animal “wan wan” (doggie in Japanese), I think she had a good time.

Thank you for all the advice and comments on “terrible two” post last week! She has been a bit better this week. I should celebrate that she is in this new stage, since she is growing and it is necessary for her develop accordingly.

Mommy’s Diary: Terrible Two’s…. Already?!

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Hello! Hope everyone had a nice Forth of July vacation:) I had a day off, so Kiko and I went to a zoo in Tokyo with my high school friend and her daughter. More pictures of the zoo next week..

But, as the title says, I’m feeling like I face different challenges as Kiko develops and matures. As soon as one challenge is conquered, another one comes! I feel like Kiko is hitting “terrible two’s” stage already even though she is still 14 months old. I read in Baby Center that some kids can start this delightful process early. Kiko wants to do many things on her own. For instance, she wants to walk on her own without anyone holding her hand, particularly on busy streets. This is perfect because we live on an intersection of two busy streets and I’m terrified that she will get run over by a car!

Adding to her knew found self exaltation in the terrible two stage, if something something happens that she does not like, she picked up the habit of sitting on the ground and crying. I’ve spent the past couple of days being frustrated with her because of this.

I’ve also had it reported to me by my mom that when she and Kiko went to a community center (where there are toys and a play ground), she dominated the slide like a little tyrant. She did not let the other kids play on the slide…Sigh. I wish I were there to beat that out of her, but alas I was not. How do you teach kids to share?

The photos above are from a recent visit to my parents – we hung out, ate my mom’s delicious meals, played the piano and played with bubbles 🙂 Those days were “Terrible Two-less” thankfully. At this point I need all of those days I can get.