A day in the life

Having finally moved into our apartment, life in Mexico City has begun to settle down into something approaching a routine for Rosalía, Noam and me. As nice as it is to occasionally wake up without a clue as to what the day ahead holds, I think we were both craving a bit of structure; not necessarily a blow-by-blow account of exactly what's going to happen, but at least a skeletal outline upon which to build the day.

Our typical day at the moment looks something like this:

• 06:45 - The three of us wake up. I am nicely rested after a good night's sleep, Rosalía is exhausted having been woken anywhere between four and ten times by a cranky, often hungry baby in the night. Now that Noam is finally in a good mood, I get to play with him for half an hour while Rosalía has to shower and get ready. I make myself a cup of tea from our dwindling supply of Yorkshire Gold (why didn't we bring more with us?) 

• 07:30 - Having given Noam one last feed, Rosalía heads off to work. I am left wondering how the hell I'm going to survive the next five-and-a-half hours alone with him. Despite a slightly forlorn look as his Mum walked out the door, for the time being, at least, he's smiling and bubbly.

• 08:00 - Time for Noam's first nap. He's been awake a whole hour and a quarter. Lazy little bastard. I put him in the carrier and stick on the TV for a bit.

Post-breakfast lull

• 09:00 - Breakfast time! I make peanut butter on toast and give Noam a couple of soldiers. Most of it ends up on the floor. He gets pretty mad if I leave him for half a second to sweep, so it will probably stay there a good few hours. If things are going well he eats a couple of slices of orange for dessert.

• 10:00 - Somehow I've managed to change Noam, get dressed myself and brush my teeth, prepare his nappy bag, put him in his pram and get out the front door. We set off towards the centre of Coyoacán, about a 30 minute walk from where we live. It's not exactly a pram-friendly route with sudden unexpected cracks in the ridiculously high pavements and potholes all over the place, but as long as I keep a keen eye out for the broken glass and dog shit, and dodge the occasional hyper-aggressive taxi driver (I know, they exist everywhere!), we normally arrive in one piece.

The boys in Coyoacán

• 10:30 - We arrive in the centre of Coyoacán. With its cobbled streets and ample greenery, Coyoacán is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the hectic city. The atmosphere feels cleaner and less oppressive as soon as we arrive. Noam gets admiring glances and cries of "hermoso" from nearly everyone we pass. We both love it here. We wander round for a bit; if I'm lucky Noam lets me have a coffee while he flirts with a group of strangers.

• 12:15 - Back at home again. Hopefully Noam has had another nap on the way home in the pram. He'll almost certainly have had a temper tantrum at some point during the last couple of hours. He seems to sense if I'm trying to get him to sleep and react immediately and automatically against it, even if he's super-tired. Some days just a minor outburst, other days of the apoplectic variety. Amazingly, there are now only 45 minutes to go until help arrives. Time to play again - our favourite game is that I build a domino tower and Noam knocks it over. He never gets bored of it.

Probably watching a film

• 13:00 - Rosalía arrives home with her parents, who've picked her up from work. Like being twelve all over again. Noam gets a decent feed, before Rosalía and I go out and find somewhere to eat lunch nearby and the grandparents take over on baby duty for a few hours.

• 14:00 - We're sitting in a café working. Rosalía's just discovered yet another section she needs to write or a document she needs to get hold of for the latest post-doc application and is tearing her hair out. I'm pretending to look busy (probably writing this).

• 16:00 - The working day is over. We arrive back at the apartment and after a protracted goodbye Noam's grandparents head home. The remaining three of us play together, I maybe play some guitar, Noam coos and generally loves being with both his parents at the same time. He eats: plenty of breast milk, most days something solid too (egg, potato, maybe avocado). A happy time.

This is how you eat avocado, stupid

• 18:45 - We prepare Noam for bed: change his nappy, put his pyjamas on, set up the baby monitor, turn on the white noise, prepare his cot, turn off the lights, easy. Rosalía puts him to sleep while I do my 7-minute workout (or drink a beer, whatever). 

• 19:45 - Rosalía and I have some dinner and try not to talk exclusively about Noam. 

• 21:00 - Rosalía pumps a little milk for tomorrow, while I read half a page of something before deciding I'm too tired to read and should either sleep or open up Netflix. If Noam wakes up around now I sometimes take the fight and try to put him back to sleep, and feel excessively proud of myself if I manage it once.   

• 22:00 - Bedtime. Let's do it all again tomorrow.