Afternoon Fun!
I read the newspaper because I am a grown-up. I eat fishsticks because that's what the kids ate and a few remainded scattered on the cookie sheet. When the phone rang at 12:11 p.m., I was doing just that, reading and eating.
The woman on the telephone asked if I'd be home, if she and her husband could stop by at about 1:00 p.m. I said in a calm, measured voice, "Sure, that would be fine." Then I gave her directions to my house. I hung up the phone and sprang into action, enlisting the aid of my sons who wander around in the summer, looking bored.
Fortunately, the family room carpet was freshly vacuumed, thanks to army-crawling CuteBaby whose new mission in life involvs gnawing on power cords and eating specks of paper and licking the carpet. I only had to clean up the lunch mess, put away a few reminders of our recent trip to Florida, sweep and hide away the basket of clutter that sits in the kitchen taunting me.
By 1:00 p.m., sure, I was a little sweaty, but my house looked presentable. The doorbell rang and there stood Happy Little Family, mom, dad and baby girl. I'll start watching the baby next week, just afternoons, four days a week. I saw Dad stealing glances at my desk, which sits in the family room. A landslide of papers covers the entire left half of the desk. And Bloglines kept beeping as blogs on my list were updated. (You really must check out Bloglines. Oh! The organization! The time-savings! The little beep that brings joy to my day! Someone has updated something! I must log on and check it out!)
Anyway, they left. Naptime arrived. At 2:15, CuteBaby and DaycareKid were sleeping. Babygirl? No. She was resistant, in fact, told me in no uncertain terms, "I do not want to go night-night!" I insisted that she did and she would . . . but she didn't. It was 3:15 p.m. when I gave up.
But I wasn't happy about it. Mommy stays sane around here by taking little breaks here and there. Lunchtime, while the kids nap, is one of those times. So, downstairs I tromped and she trailed behind me. I went straight to the kitchen where I poured myself Diet Coke with Lime (thank you, caffeine, you are my friend). She stood near me and touched my pants gently. "I love your pants! I love your shirt! I love your shoes!" she said in a sweet voice.
How can I be irked, really, when my curly-haired girl spreads the compliments as thick as chocolate icing on a birthday cake?
She never did sleep. She played in the sand and then she turned on the sprinkler and got drenched. She ran upstairs to put on dry clothes and came down wearing a pair of purple stretch pants and a pair of blue Osh-Kosh overalls. No shirt. My 7-year old son played in the sprinkler, too, and left a trail of soggy footprints all the way up to the bathroom--which doesn't seem possible. Shouldn't the carpet have dried his feet off at some point?
My house still retains the remnants of the noontime cleaning spree and for that, I congratulate myself. Tonight? I'm channel surfing while I read magazines . . . unless Bloglines keeps calling out to me. Beep! Beep! Beep!
The woman on the telephone asked if I'd be home, if she and her husband could stop by at about 1:00 p.m. I said in a calm, measured voice, "Sure, that would be fine." Then I gave her directions to my house. I hung up the phone and sprang into action, enlisting the aid of my sons who wander around in the summer, looking bored.
Fortunately, the family room carpet was freshly vacuumed, thanks to army-crawling CuteBaby whose new mission in life involvs gnawing on power cords and eating specks of paper and licking the carpet. I only had to clean up the lunch mess, put away a few reminders of our recent trip to Florida, sweep and hide away the basket of clutter that sits in the kitchen taunting me.
By 1:00 p.m., sure, I was a little sweaty, but my house looked presentable. The doorbell rang and there stood Happy Little Family, mom, dad and baby girl. I'll start watching the baby next week, just afternoons, four days a week. I saw Dad stealing glances at my desk, which sits in the family room. A landslide of papers covers the entire left half of the desk. And Bloglines kept beeping as blogs on my list were updated. (You really must check out Bloglines. Oh! The organization! The time-savings! The little beep that brings joy to my day! Someone has updated something! I must log on and check it out!)
Anyway, they left. Naptime arrived. At 2:15, CuteBaby and DaycareKid were sleeping. Babygirl? No. She was resistant, in fact, told me in no uncertain terms, "I do not want to go night-night!" I insisted that she did and she would . . . but she didn't. It was 3:15 p.m. when I gave up.
But I wasn't happy about it. Mommy stays sane around here by taking little breaks here and there. Lunchtime, while the kids nap, is one of those times. So, downstairs I tromped and she trailed behind me. I went straight to the kitchen where I poured myself Diet Coke with Lime (thank you, caffeine, you are my friend). She stood near me and touched my pants gently. "I love your pants! I love your shirt! I love your shoes!" she said in a sweet voice.
How can I be irked, really, when my curly-haired girl spreads the compliments as thick as chocolate icing on a birthday cake?
She never did sleep. She played in the sand and then she turned on the sprinkler and got drenched. She ran upstairs to put on dry clothes and came down wearing a pair of purple stretch pants and a pair of blue Osh-Kosh overalls. No shirt. My 7-year old son played in the sprinkler, too, and left a trail of soggy footprints all the way up to the bathroom--which doesn't seem possible. Shouldn't the carpet have dried his feet off at some point?
My house still retains the remnants of the noontime cleaning spree and for that, I congratulate myself. Tonight? I'm channel surfing while I read magazines . . . unless Bloglines keeps calling out to me. Beep! Beep! Beep!
posted by Melodee at Thursday, July 28, 2005
5 Comments:
I "LOVE" my bloglines. Even though it's a little slow notifying me of a new post sometimes, it is still truly me friend.
Ok, I am a dork. I went ahead and did it, but the way I was using it, it didn't pull up the site, just a thingy on the side. Is that the way it is supposed to be?
I am so technologically not where I should be.
I like the idea of it, though.
Gina, sounds like you're implying Mel is a dork too. :) But we know better.
A little girl who tosses out compliments like that has earned a nap-free afternoon!
Suzanne
That's like the other day when the newborn woke up wayyy too early. She was so happy, though, and kept smiling at me. How can you be mad at that!
Hi Mel, just wanted to stop by and say thanks for the recommendation on Bloglines. I installed it (and the nifty Notifier and One-Click subscribing add-ons) and now my life is sooooooo much easier.
Thanks!
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