Day in the Life
8.45am Wake up to baby Lucy babbling. Hear a little thumb-sucking. See a few wee fingers rise above the moses basket.
8.48am Get up and am greeted by a gummy baby. Happy and thumping her feet in excitement. One of my favourite things about having a baby is that they really think you are the BEST.
8.49.am After a few goos and gahs from me, I take Lucy to get her nappy changed. Her little sleeping bag is soaked with wee but she seems happy as a pig in poop. She babbles nonsense and attempts to eat my elbow.
9am Back to bed with Lucy wearing just her nappy. She’s too hungry to wait to get dressed. She mounts me like a monkey to feed. ARGGGH she growls with hunger.
9.20am Lucy finds her Daddy a little more interesting than my milk and sits up, chews her feet and stares at him. The three of us play about in bed for a while.
9.45am-11.30am We spend the next hour and three quarters eating breakfast, arguing, showering, deciding to take the tram, feeding Lucy, arguing, getting dressed, deciding not to take the tram, deciding to stay in, what’s the point it’s pouring rain and cold.
11.30am Finally in the car. As usual it feels like a expedition to the moon and not a family day out. Sat nav points us in the direction of the Japanese district and off we go.
11.45am Park right outside the Japan Store. Luck has it that Mr B always gets a good parking space.
11.47am Into Japan Store and have a wander about. Find some origami paper for Mr B’s latest project and browse the lovely things inside. Find a beautiful postcard book to give Mooosh or Mar-c for Christmas but decide at 22 euros they can survive without it. Sorry ladies!
Noon. After a short debate over whether it’s too posh for the likes of us, we venture along into the Hotel Nikko and go to the Benkay Restaurant. It’s posh but friendly and lovely inside. We are seated by pretty servers wearing traditional Japanese dress. I am fascinated by the patterns of the fabric and the interesting folds of the clothes.
Lucy is delighted with a new place to nosey at. For a bargain 12 euros each, we get an amazing set meal. Lucy enjoys her bottle of milk and eats a a funny angle so she can stare at the servers. She frowns at everybody passing by. Food eaten, nappy change, then off for a wander around the street. Not as many shops as we expected, but pleasant enough.
1.30pm Off to the computer shop which we never find even though the Sat nav lady says we’ve arrived at our destination.
2pm Into the Dusseldorf Arcaden for a wander. Lucy sleeps through a journey of typical shopping angst from me - ‘I don’t like anything, I can’t fit anything, I will try it on, I won’t fit it though, I am bursting out of this, I will buy it. I won’t.’ She wakens when I decide to buy nothing and actually declare the need for some Gok Wan action.
3.30pm Ahhhhhhh. Sigh of relief as I sit on the massage chair in a quiet part of the shopping centre. I always assumed these chairs just vibrated - how wrong I was! This mega-chair gives a full shiatsu massage and is so impressive I’m convinced that some man is hiding behind the chair massaging me. For 2 euros it’s a bargain. In the meantime Lucy is happy to have a bottle of milk.
3.40pm Ahhhhhh. It’s so good I decide to spend another 2 euros on another massage. The man next to me nods knowingly. Das Ist GUT he says.
After a quick scoot around Aldi’s (with Lucy laughing at everything - especially me. Did I ever mention how babies think you are SO funny. Like the funniest person that ever was, when I’m clearly not.) we head home. A problem with directions, traffic and irritating Sat nav lady means we have a SCREAMING baby who just wants to be out of the car seat NOW.
4.30pm Happy to be home. Phew.
5pm Another bottle for baby and I take her for a snooze. She snores on my chest and I feel nice and warm.
6.10pm Lucy lifts her head and spews down my front. My hair is rather sticky too. She smiles and yawns. She farts and goes to Daddy for some Daddy cuddles.
6.45pm Mr B makes a horse and bird with his origami paper.
7pm Mr B proceeds to show the origami horse to Lucy. She grabs it out of his hands and eats it faster than you can say SUSHI. Nom she says.
7.10pm After much cuddles, tickles and general staring at us, Lucy is ready for bed.
7pm-midnight Eat a lasagne from Plus (like Lidl but cheaper) with questionable mince, but it does the trick. The next few hours are spent surfing the net, sterlising and making baby bottles, expressing breast milk (yes, TMI but it’s what I do every night!) and tidying up. We watch the end of Stardust and go to bed happy in the knowledge that tomorrow we are all going swimming!
Other links to other bloggers will be posted as and when I get them. I nominate Claire to choose the next day.
