Winter Weekend

More often than not, I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water as a mother.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak, and the days are far too short.  Yesterday I felt like I was gaining ground just a bit, rather than treading water & sinking.  A good portion of the morning Elias was happy entertaining himself--a transition from his former extreme clinginess, for which I am very thankful.  In this case I got to sleep in then do 3 loads of laundry.  We drove into town to get my TB test read (negative), picked up some frozen dinners for the babysitter, then stopped for lunch at MacDonald's.  He was constantly moving like a, well, like an energetic 2 year old, but was generally well-behaved.  Going out with him no longer takes every last drop of energy I have.  We got home and he said he was sleepy and it was time for a nap(!).  While he napped I cleaned the kitchen and did a little winterizing outside, but when I came back in for some quiet time myself, he woke up. 

They've been reading about gingerbread men at daycare, so I decided to make some with Elias.  He loved rolling out the dough and especially pressing down the cookie cutter--preferably many times over the same cookies, so it was tricky rescuing intact cutouts.  He insisted on circle and dinosaur shapes as well, like one of his books has, so I improvised.  Elias liked dropping little cut-up pieces of dough all over the floor.  His offer of I clean up! while knocking the mop into walls and counters was well-intentioned but not very helpful.  When it came to cleaning up the huge collection of toys and books scattered in the livingroom, he was definitely not well-intentioned.  He ignored me or blatantly refused to help clean up, resulting in about 5 rounds of "time out" in his room and a few times of me moving books not back to the bookshelf or wndowseat, but instead to the mantle where he can see them but can't reach them, eliciting mini-tantrums each time.  Eventually the livingroom got picked up and no one was hurt:  point scored for Mommy.  Then I vacuumed, and Elias was brave in the face of that scariest of all noises.  Because of his waning interest, we didn't end up decorating the gingerbread cookies, but that was OK.  We read books and colored and had a nice dinner and generally enjoyed each other.  When he went down to sleep at what is becoming his new bedtime, 8pm, I frosted the cookies and checked email, where I discovered a few preview pictures from our photo session last weekend.  Didn't quite get to ordering Christmas cards, though.

Today didn't seem nearly as successful:  reversion towards the mean.  I felt tired out and lazy and uncreative from the start.  Looking back now, though, it wasn't too bad.  Elias enjoyed going to Sunday School, and afterwards he played outside while I finally got his carseat to give up some slack so the poor kid can get circulation to his legs now that he's wearing winter clothes.  I'm surprised how willing he is to wear mittens (unlike his mom.)  Anyway, I also packed up a big box of 18month-sized clothes to donate to church and got him to help clean up the livingroom a couple times without all the drama of yesterday.  He rocked to his CDs (he turns the volume all the way up).  He was getting whiney when I started making dinner so I let him help, which he really enjoyed, saying I help Mommy!  I help dinner.  I taste!  It made him more eager to eat it afterwards, too, I think (spicy Thai chicken with grean beans and noodles, cooked in coconut milk).  I gave him a bubble bath, then we talked on the phone with Nanna and Pappa.  Then after several books he said it was time for bed.

Tomorrow it's back to work.  With only 2 weeks left before we leave for Christmas vacation it's sure to be very busy...yet compared to tending a 2 year old, I expect it will feel relatively relaxing.