The perfect routine

Evan's on a great schedule right now, and he follows it to a tee most recently.  He even goes so far as to tell us when it's bedtime or nap/bottle time!  Here's what a typical day in the life of Evan looks like...

Evan's Schedule: 14 months old

• 6am (plus or minus 30 minutes): Wake up, followed by breastfeeding (most often in our bed)
• ~7am: To daycare on Wednesdays, Fridays, and some Mondays.

• ~7:30am: Breakfast followed by playtime.

Breakfast is most often oatmeal mixed with whole cow's milk, plus some fruit, especially on daycare days.  On some occasions (weekends for example) we'll have scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, and/or waffles.  He loves all of the above.

• 9am: Bottle 4 oz whole cow's milk, followed by morning nap (in crib with loud fan on).  He sleeps 1.5 to 2 hours for this nap.  We give him a blanket and that's all he needs to sleep with.

• ~11am (or whenever wakes from nap): Playtime!  Playtime can consist of Evan playing with his toys in our living room, or downstairs in his play room.  If it's nice outside we take him for a walk to the park during the day.

• Noon: Lunch time, followed by playtime/story time.

Lunch is provided at daycare now.  Otherwise it's typically a pouch of pureed veggie/fruit blends, cheese, grains (whole wheat bread or pasta), and meat (chicken or turkey are most common), and diced fruit (canned or fresh).

• 1:30-2pm: Bottle (4 oz whole cow's milk)

• ~2-3pm (depending on how long morning nap lasted): Nap in crib.  This nap is usually shorter than his morning nap; about 45 min up to 1.5 hrs.

• 4:30pm: Snacks and a bottle (4 oz whole cow's milk), followed by playtime.  Snacks are Cheerios, puffs, and cheese bunny crackers (Annie's brand whole grain version of goldfish crackers).

• 5:30pm: Home from daycare followed by dinner.

We're trying to have dinner be what we're having, but I can't say we always have the best foods for Evan yet (i.e. frozen pizza in a pinch isn't what we want him to have).  Nonetheless, Evan's dinner usually includes a vegetable, grain/starch (pasta, bread), fruit, and protein (chicken, turkey, ground beef/meatballs, fish).  He often gets a cookie after dinner (arrowroot cookies or graham crackers).

• ~6:30pm: Playtime or evening walk when weather is nice.  Before bed playtime usually involves dancing (we turn on the music and he lets out his remaining energy).  If we say the word "bed time" or "night night time" he usually rushes to the bottom of the stairs saying "nigh nigh tah" over and over again, signaling to us he is ready for bed.
• 7pm: Bath time (every other night).

• 7:30pm: Get ready for bed (get in PJs, disposable diaper, brush teeth, breastfeeding).  Evan has finally started to let us brush his teeth for longer.  We have a head for him on our Oral B powered toothbrush, and use infant (flouride-free) toothpaste.  

• 8pm: Bedtime.

---
While I love that Evan's on such a great and consistent schedule, I also wonder how long should this schedule last?  When should we wean him from bottles and breastfeeding?  Should we change it up so that he just has one nap per day?  If he was in a daycare center, one nap per day would have already been imposed upon him (from what I've heard, that happens when they move into the toddler room).  But does he need to switch to that schedule otherwise?

It's hard for me to want to change anything about this great schedule.  I mean he goes down for naps without a fuss, and just really must enjoy having the set routine.  However, I'm most worried about the bottles that he still gets.  He just won't take milk from a sippy cup yet, and thus we still give him milk in bottles *and* not at mealtimes.  [He drinks water from a sippy just fine and that's what he prefers to drink with meals].  Every once in awhile I try to do milk in the sippy and he still won't take it.  I'm sure at his 15 month check up his doctor will ask if he's moved off bottles and we'll probably get an earful for not having done it yet (she'd suggested we do it right after his 12-month check up!).  Don't get me wrong, we've tried, but just not adamantly.

Either way, at this time I can't imagine ever changing this schedule, given how good Evan follows it.  If it's about bottle time, he will sometimes even remind us by walking over to the bottle warmer and saying "bup" (his word for milk).   Thus, unless he initiates the change, I'm afraid it could be quite a challenge to migrate to something different.  Guess we'll find out how that goes when we travel to Hawaii next month!