Three Cheers for Amy - a Day in the Life

So this post is probably going to be a little different than most posts that you read on this blog. That's because for the first time, Amy is not writing this one. Her husband has hacked into Amy's blog site during a moment of insomnia to write down his thoughts at 3:30 am. I'd like to say that I am awake by choice, but that is not the case. Our son is re-learning how to sleep through the night without bothering mommy and daddy's precious beauty sleep. He's failing. Miserably. I'd like to take this moment to say the only bad thing you will hear from me about Amy. She is HORRIBLE at getting Will to go to sleep. You would think someone who is such a pro at sleeping would naturally pass her wisdom and passion for sleep down to our son, but that is not the case. This may be the only area in parenting where I actually excel over Amy. But I certainly did not get on here to talk about what Amy is not good at. So on to the real reason for my post.

I keep up with this blog fairly regularly, and although Amy does an incredible job letting everyone into a little part of our life with Will, she never talks about what a great job she does in raising him. If you know Amy, bragging is not her style, so allow me to do a little for her.

I consider myself a good parent and I help out in anyway I can, but it amazes me what Amy is able to do on a daily basis with our son while still kicking ass at everything else she does. Let's start with each morning. Both Amy and I have to be up and get to work each morning, but a teacher's schedule starts much earlier and is much more rigid than what I do. Even with that fact, Amy still manages to share the responsibility of getting Will ready in the mornings, usually by changing his diaper and getting him dressed for school. I have the incredibly hard job of heating up his pancakes in the microwave and pouring him a cup of milk - so don't think I get off easy. Amy then jets off to school where she spends her day influencing the minds of the future scientists of tomorrow. Just don't ask her about pine trees or birds. Yes honey, birds are in fact animals despite your claim tonight that they were not. Pine trees are also evergreens. Anyways, on to the rest of her day....

After school, Amy picks Will up and runs any and all errands that need to be completed during the week like grocery shopping, trips to the bank and post office, etc. Not easy to do with a toddler who is not fond of frequent car seat rides. Once they get home, she attends to Daisy, our dog by letting her out and feeding her all while keeping Will entertained. Will likes to eat around 5pm, so she has to get that prepared and monitor him while he eats. Otherwise, food ends up everywhere and Daisy gets a second meal. She also usually plans and begins to prepare whatever we may be eating that particular night. Now, I am not one of those "a woman's place is in the kitchen" type of guys, but it is helpful for our nightly routine when she starts supper prior to me getting home. I usually arrive home sometime between 5:30-6, with the occasional late night between 6:30-7. At that point, my job is easy - entertain Will while Amy finishes cooking. So while she slaves over a hot stove I am usually banging loudly on some toy instrument, teaching Will to throw and catch a ball, or (my favorite) seeing how far I can hit different types of balls with Will's toy golf clubs. Yes, I am still that juvenile. But come on, what dad isn't? And no, I have not broken anything in the house yet, but not from lack of trying. So really, while cooking, Amy is having to keep her eyes on two kids.

After supper, we usually bathe Will together and get him dressed for bed. Will is going through a phase now where he wants mommy to put him to bed, so after calming him down by watching a little Nick Jr or reading him a book, she puts him to bed.

At this point, Amy finally gets to relax. She's usually asleep within an hour or so - and with good reason. Will is also going through a phase where he does not sleep through the night and usually wakes up 1-2 times a night. Again, when he wakes up it's not daddy he wants, it's mommy. So most times Amy is the one who gets up with him while I selfishly get to keep sleeping - I am working on helping out more here. And at 6am, we start all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Because they are not daily activities, I did leave a few things out. But let me take the time to point out that Amy also takes care of paying all the bills - otherwise I will forget. We also try and usually fail to keep the house from looking so messy after hurricane Will comes through, and do the occasional laundry. Amy usually one ups me on these tasks as well, although I really do help out with these tasks.

And if you're still with me, congrats. You made it through my long winded explanation of why Amy is so awesome for everything she does on a daily basis. I know I don't tell her enough how thankful I am for all that she does, and she would never brag on herself, so I thought I would take the opportunity to let all her loyal blog followers know just how great she is. I seriously couldn't make it though a day without her help. So next time you talk to her, do me a favor and tell her what a great mother she is. I'm sure she hears that from time to time, but not nearly enough. You are the best babe, thanks for allowing me to share this crazy awesome life with you.

And thus ends my cameo on her blog. Goodnight. Stay classy San Diego.