The main reason to have this blog is to allow Sydney to see what her life was like as a child. Yes, it is fun to post about learning to swim or learning to ride a bicycle but the regular routines might be of equal interest to Sydney when she is older.

I think my favorite hours with Sydney are the late afternoon and evening ones. Our typical late afternoon routine is to come home, play a game, and then eat dinner together either inside or on the porch. We then often ride (Sydney) and walk (me) to the local park, which is one block away and usually empty of kids until 6:00 PM or so.

After returning home, we brush our teeth and either Sydney takes a bath or we take a shower. The last month, Sydney has preferred to take a shower. Since I need to get in to help Sydney wash her hair and clean herself, I am now staying sticky post-workout and waiting to shower until the evening.

We then get Sydney into her PJs, brush her hair, video call Devon, and sit down on the couch in our bedroom to read two books. In my goal to get Sydney to go to sleep on her own without me around, I am now sitting on the floor and setting the timer for four minutes so she gets comfortable with me not being in her bed. This seems to be working great and I plan to extend the time or move me farther away. After four minutes, I lie in bed with Sydney, sing her a couple songs, and she falls asleep – invariably around 7:30 PM.

All seemingly normal routines but oh so rewarding as a dad!