"Hey, Chele, you know it's kinda funny..."
Yes, I'm happy to spend more time with my kids.
But this is a LOT of time.
In the absence of grandparents who don't want to make a "commitment" to watch the kids on any kind of steady basis, I will have to find a babysitter for 2-3 days per week. I simply MUST have some sort of schedule. Otherwise, it's like I spend the whole day preparing food, cleaning up food, cleaning food off of toddlers, buying food, making beds, wiping butts, buying underwear, buying and returning plain t-shirts for a surprisingly fussy husband ("I asked for LIGHT blue, not NAVY blue...") and trying to move into a house that's 90% done with about 60% of my stuff, the rest stashed in boxes buried as deep as those in my warehouse of a brain.
I made an extensive, detailed To Do list, with coupons and addendums and phone numbers and various other crap stapled and paper clipped...and left it at goddamn Barnes & Noble 25 miles away. Now, I no longer commute 50 miles a day, so a 50 mile round-trip to pick up a to do list should be no sweat. But, when I did commute, I didn't do it with a baby. Marky is a great traveler and no problem in the car. He's not even really a problem in a store. He's a good baby! But he does weigh 25 pounds, and a trip to just one place means at least 6 bucklings and unbucklings (in 90-degree + heat), and long walks across blacktop, and dealing with weekend mall-goers, and I'm tired of going to stores because they never have everything I need all at once and even if they did, by the time I spent 2 hours back at home I'd have another list of miscellaneous crap to get (a screw for the drawer pull in the bathroom, drawer locks so I don't have to yank contraband toothpaste several times a day out of the clutches of a toothpaste-eating toddler who screams and vibrates like a cornered banshee when the big, mean mommymonster comes to steal his precioussss toothpaste--seriously, a new baking pan for my mother-in-law because the enchiladas required roasted garlic and the garlic stuck to the supposedly non-stick, previously unscathed and unused baking pan because mine is in a box...somewhere...and goddamn if I didn't put a 1-inch scratch in the tender chemical coating trying to get it off). You get the idea. It's just too daunting.
So here I am. I took the kids out. I had two goals: sign Stevie up for day camps at the YMCA, and check my emails and bank account. We rolled into the Y at 2. They close at 2 on Saturdays. Fuck. Roll into the office. Check emails. Get served by friends for asking for emails and then not replying--I hope this post explains my actions a bit. Did I mention that Kevin works about 12 hours a day? And that I've been with the kids all day every day for about 8 days now, all while trying to get my house into functional condition??? Check bank account--pleasant surprise! Actually got one whole paycheck when I thought I was in for my unused vacation time only.
Overall mood: Surprisingly happy! Sure, there are definitely a lot of details to work out, but I'm much less stressed. No commute! More sex! Hell...I'm Claritin clear! No intervention is necessary at this time. But I could use some toothpaste. I'll just add it to my list...
...goddamn it!
But this is a LOT of time.
In the absence of grandparents who don't want to make a "commitment" to watch the kids on any kind of steady basis, I will have to find a babysitter for 2-3 days per week. I simply MUST have some sort of schedule. Otherwise, it's like I spend the whole day preparing food, cleaning up food, cleaning food off of toddlers, buying food, making beds, wiping butts, buying underwear, buying and returning plain t-shirts for a surprisingly fussy husband ("I asked for LIGHT blue, not NAVY blue...") and trying to move into a house that's 90% done with about 60% of my stuff, the rest stashed in boxes buried as deep as those in my warehouse of a brain.
I made an extensive, detailed To Do list, with coupons and addendums and phone numbers and various other crap stapled and paper clipped...and left it at goddamn Barnes & Noble 25 miles away. Now, I no longer commute 50 miles a day, so a 50 mile round-trip to pick up a to do list should be no sweat. But, when I did commute, I didn't do it with a baby. Marky is a great traveler and no problem in the car. He's not even really a problem in a store. He's a good baby! But he does weigh 25 pounds, and a trip to just one place means at least 6 bucklings and unbucklings (in 90-degree + heat), and long walks across blacktop, and dealing with weekend mall-goers, and I'm tired of going to stores because they never have everything I need all at once and even if they did, by the time I spent 2 hours back at home I'd have another list of miscellaneous crap to get (a screw for the drawer pull in the bathroom, drawer locks so I don't have to yank contraband toothpaste several times a day out of the clutches of a toothpaste-eating toddler who screams and vibrates like a cornered banshee when the big, mean mommymonster comes to steal his precioussss toothpaste--seriously, a new baking pan for my mother-in-law because the enchiladas required roasted garlic and the garlic stuck to the supposedly non-stick, previously unscathed and unused baking pan because mine is in a box...somewhere...and goddamn if I didn't put a 1-inch scratch in the tender chemical coating trying to get it off). You get the idea. It's just too daunting.
So here I am. I took the kids out. I had two goals: sign Stevie up for day camps at the YMCA, and check my emails and bank account. We rolled into the Y at 2. They close at 2 on Saturdays. Fuck. Roll into the office. Check emails. Get served by friends for asking for emails and then not replying--I hope this post explains my actions a bit. Did I mention that Kevin works about 12 hours a day? And that I've been with the kids all day every day for about 8 days now, all while trying to get my house into functional condition??? Check bank account--pleasant surprise! Actually got one whole paycheck when I thought I was in for my unused vacation time only.
Overall mood: Surprisingly happy! Sure, there are definitely a lot of details to work out, but I'm much less stressed. No commute! More sex! Hell...I'm Claritin clear! No intervention is necessary at this time. But I could use some toothpaste. I'll just add it to my list...
...goddamn it!
posted by lulu | 1:01 PM
1 Comments:
Strange . . . I thought Virginia was for Lovers.
But, I completely understand your reluctance to go back out AGAIN to get that little thing you forgot, facing the ins-and-outs of buckles, straps, lifting, carrying, maneuvering . . .
It's a pain in the ass, man.
And that's one reason why many home improvement things that I attempt around my house never go very far. Because I never have the stuff I need, always get the wrong thing when I head out . . . it's just a big hassle.
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