Daily grind

Vivien has been back at work for a couple of weeks now and that means we've had to come up with a new routine for dealing with Zoe during the day. This is how it goes: Zoe wakes up for the first time at about 4am; she's not wide awake yet but lets off a little whinge to make sure everyone knows she's around. With or without earplugs, we inevitably wake up. Until a couple of nights ago, Vivien would feed Zoe for a first time, then put her down again - now, we let her fret for a couple of minutes, after which she'll usually fall asleep again. But only for about an hour, so that between 5.30 and 6 she definitely gets her first feed. On three days of the week, Vivien will then get up, get dressed and drive to work, where she's usually by far the first person to arrive. If I'm lucky I get to sleep another hour with Zoe next to me. If not, she'll poke or hit me in the face till I'm wide awake. By 7 we head into my little office where Zoe will happily take apart anything within her reach and I read my mails (good time for an early morning chat). At 7.45 she starts getting a bit bored so we switch rooms and perhaps watch the German news at 8. Then it's time for breakfast for both of us - porridge for Zoe, muesli for me. Sometimes I'll get some of the porridge too, spat at me, which means it's high time for me to shower. Zoe will use the opportunity to maul the poor bathroom plant a bit more. At around 9.30 it's high time for some Leonard and the inevitable morning nap, which recently has lasted for about an hour. I'll happily join in. After some household chores like doing the dishes or the washing we will head off to the beach at around 11, to check out the surf and perhaps throw in a latte and read the paper at my favourite cafe. Back home at around 12.30 it's lunch time for Zoe - this time it'll be something yummy like mushed up broccoli and tofu or lamm and rice. After having cleaned up the ensuing mess it'll be around 1.15 and Vivien will come home. Smiles all around. Vivien will take over from there and I will head off to the more relaxing part of the day: work. At 9.30pm I'll be back and, if we're not too tired, Vivien and I will actually get to spend some time together. It's all good so far, but how do people manage with three kids?