Regular

The word "regular" is spelled, means, and is more or less pronounced the same in Spanish and English. In Spain – in my Spanish family, at least – it is the worst possible response that can be given when someone asks you how you're doing, guaranteed to get a, "Aw, what's wrong?" in return. Of course it's funny to me because if you got that response from an English speaker, they'd be referring to their regular bowel schedule.

After one night of pure hell last week we have had a resounding success in our nocturnal parental negotiations. The key, it seems, is keeping a regular schedule and sticking to it no matter what.

09:00 - Breakfast of milk formula with powdered cereals 11:00 - Walk around town with Daddy 12:30 - Vegetable puree for lunch 13:00 - Post-lunch siesta (this is key!) 14:00 - Wake up 14:30 - To daycare 17:00 - Afternoon fruit puree at daycare 17:30 - Pick-up at daycare and walk around town with Mommy 19:30 - Bathtime 20:30 - Dinner of milk formula with powdered cereals 21:00 - Bedtime

We have gone an entire week with less than a 10 minute variation for each activity. The result was plenty of sleep for Mommy and Daddy, resulting in good moods all around. This has a major parental epiphany for us.

As an unintended consequence, an additional scheduled activity manifested itself. She now poops regularly at 10:00, with the chimes of the church bells. To take a quote from Weeds, she "[poops] like a Swiss train".