6:00 - Alarm wakes me up. Paisley is finally sleeping through the night! Now, for the first time in eight years, I'm finally getting a full night's uninterrupted sleep.
6:45-ish - Paisley might wake up and join me for a breakfast of chocolate (Nutella) toast, or else I'll get ready in the dark and silence.
7:00 - Leave home and drive two miles to the bus stop.
7:11 - Bus leaves the station. I've always got a book or two in my bag to keep me busy. The express library at Carver Station (for drop-offs AND automated pickup) is one of my favorite things.
8:00 - The bus drops me off in downtown Minneapolis right outside the front door of my building, like as unto a veritable KING OF PUBLIC TRANSIT. I climb stairs up to the tenth floor and get straight to work.
8:30 - Coffee break.
11:00? (or as soon as I can reasonably justify it) - Lunch time!!
4:03 - Time to catch the express bus back home. Mostly I read on the bus, sometimes I nap; occasionally I start with the former and segue into the latter. Luckily I ride until the end of the line so there's no worry about missing my stop!
5:00 - Home again, I take over on parenting duty. I change into my soft clothes, put away my phone (ideally), and switch to dad mode. Some days I have a new book from the library and Natalie disappears until she has read the whole thing. Otherwise we all pretend to be animals, or play hide-and-seek, or whatever the girls can agree on that day.
6:00 - Dinner time! Usually Jenna cooks while I play with the kids, so we get a solid hour of bonding time before eating together. Well, we sit down together, anyway. Natalie and Paisley still won't eat anything.
7:00 - The kids go into the tub and we watch Steven Universe on the iPad. Maybe I do a little embroidery. Maybe, just maybe, I even bathe them and wash their hair, but nobody likes doing that so we usually put it off until Jenna forces the issue.
7:45 - We put on pajamas and brush our teeth. I used to skip nighttime brushing until I had the brilliant idea to do it at the same time I was forcing my kids to. New habit achieved!
8:00 - The children disperse for their separate bedtime routines. Natalie reads patiently while I read Paisley a story (often the same one for many nights in a row), tuck her in, pray, sing 'Twinkle Twinkle,' and do shadow puppets. I ask her to try not peeing in her diaper tonight.
8:15 - Paisley is probably not asleep yet and might call for me again, but now it's Natalie's turn for daddy-daughter time. I read her the next chapter of Chi's Sweet Home, which she has already done herself many times, but it's new to me. After I say a prayer out loud she likes to add something in her head, then 'You Are My Sunshine' (just the chorus), and snuggling.
8:?? - On-call for nighttime emergencies, I wait in the master bedroom and amuse myself with some combination of Netflix, podcasts, and embroidery. If I'm very lucky and determined I can do about an hour of stitching per night which is almost enough to halfway finish a teeny street fighter.
9:00 - Once the kids are sound asleep I get to spend some time with my wife. If she's still awake I can find out what she's been up to and maybe even have a real conversation. If she goes to bed early it's time to play videogames!
10:00 - Lights out, good night.
