It’s been a looong, looooong, loooooooong week. The kind of long week that induces me to add extra letters to words. Exxxxtra letttters.
There hasn’t been anything particularly bad going on, so I really shouldn’t complain. But I’ll complain anyhow.
Daycare was closed. Seeing as I am crazy about my kids, that shouldn’t sound like a bad thing. However, I am so not cut out to be a stay-at-home mother. I guess much of the problem was in how much we stayed at home. We had various plans for various days, but many of them fell through for various reasons. For another thing, I still had some work obligations to tend to, so it wasn’t actually vacation time.
We did get out on Wednesday for a bit, which was before all this snow started falling. After being out and about for a while, I thought it would be nice to go somewhere for a snack. I found myself hankering for a latte (a decaf soy latte, mind you), and the only place to find such a thing in the towns near our home is a large chain bookstore. That particular endeavor ended in me leaving the bookstore in disgrace with a crying baby, one newly purchased $4.99 Dora book which I had tried to read to Phoebe, but which we couldn’t finish due to said crying baby, and a little less dignity. I did at least get to have my latte first. (Though I burned my tongue on it, and had to wait what seemed an eternity for it to cool, and then had to chug it anyhow when Theo ran out of patience at being stuck at the table after hours of largely being strapped in to a carseat or a stroller. Good times.)
I looked forward to the weekend, when John would be available so we could all go out together on some fun excursion. Friday things were mostly closed for the holiday, so we didn’t try. We made plans for Saturday, but then it snowed, and it set us back. We thought we try for Sunday, but there was more snow. And somehow, we never managed to go anywhere. And while Phoebe likes to go out in the snow, Theo, so far, does not. (Also, I can’t for the life of me find his snowpants. Our house eats things.) The result is that I have not actually left the house in days. I can’t actually tell you where the time has gone. I know I did some baking. I made apple sauce (from baked apples) and a pumpkin pie, and Phoebe and I made bread again. There have been some movies watched. There have been some toys played with. Some phone calls. I’ve had very little time on my laptop, other than late at night, and much of that was for work. I check in for brief spells during the day, but Theo has this tendency to come over to the couch and close my laptop whenever I open it.
I have to say that I am really looking forward to Tuesday, when Phoebe and Theo go back to daycare. It’s not that I don’t like spending time with them. It’s just that I appreciate spending time with them more when I get to have a bit of time when I can focus on other things.
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And speaking of focussing on my children, here are some pictures I took.
collecting tokens 
I’m totally bummed about our return to real life today, though that probably has to do with the fact that my kids are at fairly independent ages nowadays!
exactly – the independence helps a lot, although there were many things I set aside to tackle today (Jiminy Cricket says: blog reading was NOT one of them…) because I knew I would need a block of uninterrupted time.
One thing I will complain about is that there is a huge disparity in patience level between my husband and me, so when he and his short fuse are around, it’s really tough (although he was angelic on Wednesday, when we all went to the horrible CT science center and then out to lunch).
I was noticing this past week that the kids seem to have flip-flopped: Alex (3) used to be the difficult one who was hard to shop with and keep out of trouble. This vacation Emily Kate (1) was the one who was constantly into things and breaking stuff and bumping her head, while Alex was helpful and adorable. Unfortunately for us, EK is still so darn cute even when she’s being a pain that we anticipate trouble from her for the next 18 years.
The look on your face says it all; ie, ‘Mommy is being PATIENT, damn it.’
I remember those days very well. Oh, yes! I think you are being a saint – I recall kicking in the cabinet door under the sink during toilet training.
And I felt much the same about the YD’s exasperating dog this holiday.
Even though you ave two of the world’s most beautiful kids.
No way those lovely kids ever cry.
I had a week locked in the house, too, for some of which *I* was sick… When I was younger I never thought I’d say this, but thank god for school!
Love the pictures. You are not afraid of taking close-up pictures. I need to learn from that. “It’s not that I don’t like spending time with them. It’s just that I appreciate spending time with them more when I get to have a bit of time when I can focus on other things.” Hear hear. I am happy on Monday mornings when I head back to work. And don’t let anybody make you feel guilty about this.
Mine are just back to school this week so I’ve been trying to play catch up but somehow I just haven’t quite managed to find enough energy to get done everything that needs to get done.