The morning routine - 2013 Edition

Every morning my first coherent thought is usually something to the effect of, "Hillary is dead."

I have a four year old and a seven year old. We are blunt in this family.

It's worse on weekends and bad on weekdays. On weekdays in particular, my second or third thought is a sense of loss, grief, nostalgia, and wistfulness about our various morning routines.

Isaac started daycare at about one year old at Little Treasures. This was at the corner of Blue Mountain and Austin in Coquitlam. Hillary went back to work full time at that point. The specific reasons are lost to the mists of time now, but the arrangement we came up with was that I would drop Isaac off in the mornings. Hillary would pick him up most days.

There were two main variants on these days. Hillary rides, or Hillary does not ride. I also sometimes worked at home, sometimes didn't, etc.

Hillary Rides

A typical morning would have Hillary up a bit before six. She would always set an alarm and always wake up before it. She usually remembered to turn it off. She'd try to be quiet while she dressed in the clothes she'd set out the night before and head downstairs.

I'd follow downstairs by 6:30 or so, generally with Isaac in tow at this point. Hillary or I would construct his lunch for at daycare. I'd get my first coffee of the morning and breakfast for Isaac and I.

I mostly remember the comforting feeling of moving around the kitchen. We didn't talk much in the morning. Just got about our business. Hillary would be on the bike and rolling by 7:00.

Isaac would hang out in the kitchen, generally pulling things apart while I finished lunches and got stuff together. I'd throw my bike on the back of the car, drive him up to daycare and do the drop-off. From there, I'd drive to Hillary's office, leave the car and ride the rest of the way into my office.

I won't say this was a typical morning in terms of Isaac's explorations as it was enough that I felt I should take a picture. That said though? There are several vaguely similar pictures that I sent to Hillary showing Isaac's 'morning work' in the kitchen. This one was from October 2013.

Hillary does not ride

Sometimes Hillary needed to take the car in the morning.

Things would start out the same, but she'd generally get into the shower before turning off her alarm. Haha. Not really. I mean, it happened regularly, but not every day.

She'd sneak back in, assuming I was asleep. Most of the rest of the next hour or so played out the same. Without a car though, I would pull Isaac up to daycare in the trailer behind my bike. The ride was a twenty to twenty five minute ride with a trailer, mostly uphill.

I'd drop him off, then ride back down the hill to our house. Unhook the trailer, load on my panniers and head off into work.