Greg’s Day Off With His Daughter Vikki

As you hear, Matt James is filling in for me right now. I want to thank him and want to say welcome back. Starting Monday night you'll hear Matt nightly at 8pm. I took a day off so my wife Lynn could help her mother at a craft fair at Central Maine Medical Center. My day started after Lynn dropped Dylan off at Auburn Middle School on her way to help her Mom set up for the craft show. I woke at at about 7:30 am to Justin watching TV on the couch. Quickly got Vikki dressed and took Justin to school with Vikki in tow. Dropped him off, came back home and made Vikki a couple of dry Eggo waffles with a sippy cup of milk. At this point, it's 9:00 am and time for 'Operation: Clean House.' I ran the dishwasher and did the pots and pans by hand, vacuumed the dining room and study. I also got a load of laundry started. We're at about 9:30 am now, I took a break and had a cup of coffee, okay maybe two; played with Vikki for a bit and scrolled through my facebook feed.

At about 10:00 am, I put Vikki down for a nap while I did a few more things including clearing off the the "pile zone." We all have one of those areas, ours is the island that separates the kitchen and dining room. At about 11:00 am, while Vikki was still sleeping, I started to make lunch. I wanted Shake N' Bake chicken, my favorite meal I can cook. I saw that we had Shake N' Bake, only really saw the logo on the box. After thawing the thighs in the microwave, I get the Shake N' Bake, and see it's for pork. I decided to use it anyway. The chicken went in the oven with the Shake N' Bake for Pork. As soon as Vikki smelled it, she woke up from her nap. She was a little whiny until the food was ready. Shake N' Bake pork covered chicken, Lipton beef noodles and frozen mixed veggies. Vikki's plate got prepared and put it in the freezer for a few minutes, as I made mine. Let's say there are a lot of Leftovers. Pork Shake N' Bake isn't the greatest thing on chicken.

Lunch is done. Watch a bit of the news and tend to Vikki for a changing, then back to cleaning. Picked up from lunch and did a little more vacuuming. I turned on the radio to entertain Vikki while I completed the housework. She loves to dance. We had a bit of fun together because she is too cute and had to break for a bit. We had some Vikki and daddy time.

At about 2:30 pm Dylan comes home on the bus. I ask him if he has homework, he says "No." The joy of Power School, *evil laugh*. Actually Dylan is doing quite well. No complaints. Funny, he's 13 and goes right to the table and gets into his Minecraft on the laptop. It's the weekend, I guess it's okay.

Vikki is rubbing her eyes like she's tired right after Dylan gets home. Nap time for her or so I think. I gather her essentials, the pacifier and "Teddy" and proceed to put her in her crib. I leave her for a few minutes then I hear the crib shaking. I walk into her room and she's laughing. Her pacifier is half way to the door from her bed. Guess she wasn't ready for a nap? I bring her back out into the study where I'm working and trying to facebook. I figure by now my housecleaning is done.

Dylan's home, Vikki won't nap, so I go to watch some TV. and catch Katie Couric's new show. One thing that stays the same, daytime TV talk. It hasn't changed in 20 years. Just the names and faces are different. Subjects stay the same. I stay with Channel 6 and catch the 5:00 pm news. Justin had a field trip today, he went to Sparetime Recreation with CLC (an after school program). Lynn calls and says she's running late and asks if I could go get Justin when the bus gets back from bowling. I'm about to leave and Lynn gets home. I get Justin and bring him home so Lynn can sit down for a few minutes. Since 6:00 pm, I've been writing this post with a break to eat at about 7:00 pm.

So as you can see it wasn't a pamper myself type of day, but Vikki and I had a lot of fun. Great "one-on-one" time. I don't get a lot of time with her just by ourselves. She only got cranky a couple of times with me, just before lunch and just after Dylan got home. Now that Mom is home, Vikki is Ms. "Cranky Pants." Apparently Vikki likes me more. *raspberry*