Morning

I've been re-thinking our morning routine lately. Donovan normally wakes up around 6am (sometimes 6:30 if he's being nice), then goes down for his first nap at 9am. Usually in the hours between we'll have breakfast, he'll play in his room and living room, and I'll follow him around and try to squeeze in morning computer time (checking email, facebook, google reader, etc). We often also stay in our pjs till after his first nap. But I'm realizing this isn't really a very effective use of our time, and I think in some ways it sets us off to a bad start to our day. It also means D watches me sit on the computer a lot, which doesn't make me a very good role model especially if I'm gonna be laying down limits on how much time he can spend on the computer/watching tv/etc when he's old enough. Inspired by how Mom took D on morning walks to the park every morning at this time while she was here, I decided to make some changes to our mornings.

So this past week we've been sitting down for breakfast pretty quick after waking up, then getting dressed, and then playing outside in the patio or walking to the neighborhood playground by about 7:30 or 8am. Then we come back in time for his nap, and once he's asleep I'll open up the laptop and do my stuff. I've always had a hard time with self-discipline, but not allowing myself computer time till his first nap is working out nicely, and D seems happy enough to get to play outside and have my uninterrupted attention all morning. I also tend to do better when I focus on one thing at a time, rather than try to do multiple things (catching up on blogs and keep D happy) at the same time and end up doing neither very well.

I also discovered yet another benefit to our early morning outings-- as we were going to the park the other morning I passed a bush of these pretty purple flowers that were sparkling with water drops, either from dew or recent watering. It was 7:30am, so the sun was low but rising and casting really nice light. At first I lamented that I didn't have my dslr with me, but then realized that my point&shoot camera, with the macro function turned on, would probably work better anyway. It was interestingly one of those times when I knew I was being presented with gorgeous photographing opportunities, but didn't quite know where to start or how to frame my shots. So I just started shooting (D sitting patiently beside me in his stroller). And came away with some fun pictures. =)

We then got to the playground and D had fun, with the whole playscape to himself, and I again realized that we were there pretty close to the famed "golden hour" and that I really should take advantage and bring my dslr with me next time, and see what I could get of D as he plays.

Here is one fun shot from that day's playground adventures. =P