Here we are at the end of week 2 of the “A Day in the Life” series and I am sure you all were hoping for something spicy and exciting. Alas, you get me:) A planner by nature and necessity, the Bow family day is pretty routine. Prepare to have your mind numbed.

Step 1: Get Up!

I am the first one out of bed around 6:45 every week day morning. After showering, I scoop “my baby” (almost 4 year old AK) up from her bed and put her into our bed with the Hoos. Her warm, fuzzy and wonderful snuggling certainly doesn’t encourage him to move quickly, but it helps her get started.

Step 2: Get Everyone Else Up

By “everyone else” I really mean LP. At almost 6 she is her daddy’s girl. At least when it comes to getting out of bed in the morning. Usually she harrumphs and me and says, “I WANT DADDY!”

Step 3: Get Moving

AK gets dressed on her own while the Hoos showers and LP continues to rest. I head downstairs to get the girls’ backpacks ready – putting icepacks into the lunch boxes I made the night before, zipping them into the backpacks and getting the packs near the front door, ready for the mad dash out the door.

Step 4: Get Out

After getting AK situated with breakfast, the Hoos and LP arrive downstairs, which is my cue to hightail it out of there. It is 7:45 and I head out for my drive to my office in Wilton, leaving the Hoos in charge.

Step 5: Work

Step 6: AMY TRAVEL!

This is the alert that shows up on my desktop at 2:45 every Tuesday and Thursday. Those are the days that LP takes the bus home from kindergarten, so I need to be home by 3:30 and ready for her to get off the bus at 4. Since Tuesday are my “day o’ conference calls,” I usually transfer my 2pm call to my cell phone at 3pm and continue the conversation as I drive home. Good times.

Step 7: Meet, Greet and Expend Some Energy

Watching LP get off the bus is awesome. She is always happy to me and offers at least a little tidbit about her day. I then paw through her backpack like a raccoon in the trash to see if there are any notes or projects or morsels that will give me some insight into the secret life of my kindergartener. (As an aside, this is a huge adjustment from day care when you get a daily sheet every day and you talk to the teach and other parents everyday to get an idea of what happened in the classroom. It takes getting used to.)

I give LP a snack while I finish my call (simultaneously on mute and speaker) and change into my bathing suit. As soon as my call is over, LP gets her shoes and coat on and grabs our swimming bag, “Okay, mom! I’m ready! Set the alarm!”

We then pick up 1. my 13-year old niece and head over to AK’s day care, the JCC of Bridgeport. When she sees the swimming bag – and her cousin – she is super excited, “Yay! Yay! Yay! We’re going swimming!”

We head down to the pool at the JCC and spend a good hour splashing. At 5:30 I round up my troops and we head into the locker room to change.

Step 8: No Rest for the Weary

At 6pm we are dried off and dressed, we drop off my niece and head home.

The girls pick out a snack and get to work on a “project” while I get dinner ready. At some point AK decides that projects are more fun when you are dressed as a princess. Maybe cleaning the tupperware from their lunchboxes is more fun with wings too? Note to self – try this next week.

Step 9: Nourishment

At 7 the Hoos gets home from work and we all sit down to dinner. While we may not all be eating the same meal, at least we are all eating together. We take turns going around the table talking about what we did today. AK usually starts with, “I went to work…”

Step 10: Bedtime

Around 8, the Hoos heads upstairs with the girls. They take turns peeing and brushing their teeth and then jump into the shower together.

While he takes care of business upstairs, I get tomorrow’s lunchboxes ready and put snacks in the front of their backpacks.

At 8:30 the girls are done with their baths and watching TV in our bed. By 9 the show is over and both ladies are in their beds.

The Hoos and I sit on the couch and have a conversation. Well, kind of. Usually we zone out and watch something off the DVR. What did people with kids do before the DVR? Of, right! Channel surf and watch lots of things and nothing at the same time!

Around 10 I head up to bed, set my alarm and hit the hay.