Being Aleks
6:15 - Alarm on my iPhone goes off. I've never changed it from the default sound. How many people start their day the same way? I mash buttons until it probably goes into snooze.
6:23 - Get up. Cancel snooze with somewhere between a minute to seconds to spare. Get myself cleaned up for the day.
6:45 - Let the dog and cat out. Brush my teeth. Toothbrush is in a separate bathroom from everything else. Have never really thought about why. Let the dog in. Feed the dog. Let the cat in. Feed the cat. Put the cat food away.
6:55 - Start working on Amelia's lunchbox. Cut up some fruit. A bread roll, maybe. Sometimes Yuling has steamed a sweet potato the night before. Throw in something too artificial and processed, and also a juice box.
7:05 - "DADDY!" (If I'm lucky. She has until about 7:25 until I have to drag her out of bed, and those mornings never go well.) The day always starts with a question (e.g. "do you remember when Mommy's friend fell off a horse?") Then I walk her to the bathroom. Potty. Brush teeth. Clean her face. No dressing up yet; clothes would just get dirtied by breakfast.
7:20 - Breakfast. Cereal for me. Amelia might eat a bite of toast or two bowls of cereal, never sure which. If she isn't in the eating mood, I'll try to squeeze in a Kumon worksheet. Finishing the worksheet earns her a little bit of iPad while I brush her hair and finish up her lunch box.
7:50 - Dress Amelia for school. Jeans and a shirt picked to match the temperature of the day.
7:55 - Shoes on. Let's go to the car.
8:00 - Get in the car. No really. Let's get in the car. Yes, the car is wet on the outside. No, I don't think it minds. Get in the car, please.
8:01 - Crap, why do I always forget it takes 5 minutes to get in the car. What are we listening to and why is it the Moana soundtrack? Anyway, here we go.
8:04 - Decide if I need to be in the left lane so I speed past the bus or in the right lane so I speed past the people trying to make a left turn.
8:07 - Now we're cruising down Sand Point Way. Things pick up from here. Past the chaos of Lake City Way, we now have a clear shot to school with almost no traffic lights. This time of year, I get little peeks at the sun coming up over Lake Washington.
8:15 - Pulling into Villa Academy. The staff work as crossing guards during the morning rush. The same man in the same hat always gets the post by the gate. He waves to everyone. I always wave back. The other staff always rotate positions but he is always here. It must mean something special to him.
8:16 - Amelia is not old enough to be dropped off in front, so I find a parking spot on the basketball courts, next to the other Teslas. We climb the stairs from the court up to the school. I climb up the stairs normally while Amelia does it by hanging onto the outside of the railing, like a mountain climber ascending to the summit. Sometimes other kids see this and decide to copy her. In my head, I apologize to their parents, but only a little.
8:18 - We've made it to the top of the stairs. I remark to one of the staff posted there, jokingly, that she can never do things the normal way. They tell me there is no normal, only usual. That's what normal means, I think to myself. I make a note to see if the thesaurus lists "normal" as a synonym for "usual." (It does.)
8:20 - We've made it to her classroom. I help her hang her coat and put her lunch box on the cart. Sometimes I get a hug goodbye, but usually she is too eager to join in with whatever else is going on. I wave to another dad.
8:21 - This is one of the best parts of the day, this view on the walk back to the parking lot. While the mornings feel rushed, coming to such a beautiful place does make a huge difference. I feel refreshed.
8:22 - Back at the car. It is podcast time. If there is a new episode of Serious Trouble or Crypto Critics Corner, I listen to that. Otherwise, I am working my way through a backlog of "The Always Sunny Podcast," which I only recently discovered.
8:40 - Back home now. Usually Yuling and Jonny are up by now and Jonny is eating breakfast. I put on the water kettle for coffee then give Jonny a quick cuddle. Our espresso machine is away for repairs, so we've been doing pour overs. I might not go back to the espresso machine.
8:58 - At my desk. Show time. The dog usually follows me down and sleeps on the floor of my office. On the one or two days a week I go into the office, it's a whole other thing, but most days I work from home. I check in on Slack for the latest happenings and gossip (or "tea", as the young ones call it.) Emails. Looking through my calendar. Review some code.
9:30 - Usually time for the first meeting of the day. And then it is zoom room to zoom room until...
12:02 - Last meeting ran late. Time to take the dog for a quick walk. We go down the block and back, rain or shine.
12:20 - Lunch time. Usually leftovers, otherwise peanut butter and jelly, which I would probably live off of if left to my own devices. But not just any peanut butter. It has to be CB's. There is CB's, and then there is other peanut butter. It's the first one I found that only had one ingredient: peanuts. I always thought peanut butter had to have oil or something in it to work, but apparently the world is full of lies. I like my peanut butter to taste like peanuts, thank you. Another pour over is in order too.
12:58 - Here we go again. Fewer meetings in the afternoon. More writing docs or sometimes actually writing code. Deploy code to production. Sit in a heightened state of anxiety for the next couple of hours while my change rolls out and starts to impact every single credit card payment going through Stripe. It's probably fine though.
15:30 - Take a quick stretch. Let the dog out. Drink maybe a little bit of the herbal tea my mother-in-law makes continuously throughout the day. Let the dog in. Back to work.
16:30 - Time to get Amelia. More podcasts. More Sand Point Way. The sun is on the other side of the hills now. It is not so bright and the drive has a bit more melancholy feel to it. But Amelia is at the other end, so that makes a difference.
16:48 - Pull into Villa. Most kids get picked up earlier at the end of the normal school day. Amelia is enrolled in an extended day program, which lasts until 5 pm. This gives her some more play time with her friends and lets Yuling and me get more work done. It also means most kids are gone by the time I pick her up and there isn't a big pick-up/drop-off crunch. I park next to the school building. I tell myself this means we don't have to climb the stairs again, but in my heart of hearts, I know this is a lie.
16:51 - Push the buzzer to be let into the school. No one ever asks who I am and they open the door. I like to think it is because the recognize me. At least I don't look suspicious.
16:53 - I locate where Amelia is. This is usually on the preschool playground, but sometimes they are inside if it is raining or there are fewer kids and they want to increase the density of the children. Amelia will be playing with a friend. I usually stand back for a bit to watch how she plays. Outside, next to the playground, there is an over-sized game of connect-four, which has long been scrapped. The legs have become swords, the game pieces plates for pretend picnics. If she doesn't notice me after a couple of minutes, I'll call out to her and she always comes running, before running back to what she was doing. It takes some convincing for her to leave; I am glad she likes it here.
17:02 - I try to get her swiftly to the car, but if one of her friends is being picked up at the same time, they always try to convince us to go to big-kids playground for a bit. She asks for four minutes there (because she is four) but that is also a lie.
17:15 - Okay, Amelia, time to go home. Time for dinner.
17:25 - Seriously, we need to go home now. Mama is waiting for us.
17:28 - I am going now, with or without you.
17:35 - Okay, now we're going. But not before going up and down the stairs one more time in that special Amelia way.
17:38 - Back in the car. Picking up the Moana soundtrack where we let off in the morning.
17:55 - Home now. Except we have to finish whatever song is playing. Shoes and socks have come off in the car, so I have to get those back on her.
17:58 - Back inside. Finally. Get the layers off of her. Amelia goes to wash her hands. Check her tote bag for any art to be sorted and check her lunchbox to see what she ate. Make a mental note for tomorrow. Jonny is awake from his nap. If he isn't already eating, we might all pile into the play area for a bit while Yuling sets out food. Time to eat.
18:20 - Help tidy up from dinner. Load dishwasher. Wash things. Try to talk Amelia into finishing the day's homework and maybe get in some violin practice. We have a punch card for violin practice. If she fills it, she gets to get a new toy. Some days, though, she'll put on a show without any prompting.
18:35 - "Either time for a bath or do your homework."
18:50 - Homework is done. Time to get in a bath. I run the bath extra hot, because I know what is coming.
18:55 - "Daddy, I'm hungry." Eat some yogurt or crackers.
19:10 - Get into the bath for real. Have to check the temperature to make sure it is still good. Wash. Tidy up around the house and her room while she splashed around for a bit.
19:30 - Get out of the bath. Pray she isn't hungry again.
19:45 - Finish eating again. Brush teeth. Floss. Time to go to bed. I always have to read four stories (because she is four). That is apparently the rule.
20:25 - Start reading the fifth story.
20:35 - No, there will be no sixth. Sometimes she will dismiss me, and sometimes I sit there until she falls asleep.
20:45 - One way or another, I am dismissed from parenting the older one now. Time to shower and have a tiny bit of time to myself.
21:45 - Count the number of dirty baby bottles. If it is 5 or more, wash them all and put them in the bottle steamer. Clean up the kitchen. Tidy up anything else that is egregiously messy. Give the dog his daily medicine. Take the garbage out. Any other little thing that needs attending to. Maybe eat a snack.
22:15 - Work part 2. Respond to message and emails that I missed since taking off for school pick up. Sometimes, though, instead of work I’ll take some more time to read or write for pleasure. Or work on some small personal project. Sometimes though, Jonny is awake again and I will spend the time playing with him, until Yuling tries again to put him to sleep.
23:00 - Let the dog out. Brush my teeth while he is out.
23:05 - Let the dog in. Clean his feet. Find the cat if she is still outside. Normally this involves turning on the outside lights and looking for the two little reflectors. Sometimes she’ll come right away, and other times she needs to be convinced I see her.
23:08 - Feed the cat.
23:10 - Pick up the cat food so the dog doesn’t get it.
23:15 - Bed time. Rotate Amelia 90 degrees back to a normal sleeping position. Make sure she is tucked in. Maybe read for a little bit. Rotate Amelia again. Go to sleep.
Repeat.