All By Myself...

Well, yesterday signaled the end of my Election Day and Post-Election Day high and the beginning of my descent into temporary single-mom status.

Well, to be fair, that started Tuesday night, but my enthusiasm for the election really covered my stress at being a single parent. As in on Tuesday night there was a moment when I was naked, fresh from the evening bath, holding a very slippery wet son as he scrambled frantically to not fall into the toilet, and my daughter (also wet and slippery) was attempting to climb out of the tub. I snagged her and shut the bathroom door quickly lest naked wet toddler tried to run and potentially slip on the hardwood floor. While I was wiping the stinky bum of my son, said toddler grinned, squatted and peed on the floor. She's very coordinated, though, she managed not to step on it as she darted away to sit on the little potty chair. She just got it in the wrong order, d'oh! Milo was pooping again when they called the results for Iowa, something I really wanted to see since I was one of the people who participated in the exit polls on which they based that result.

Anyway, Milo came home from daycare on Wednesday night running a fever and with a headache. Though he was not running a fever yesterday morning, he was still pretty pale and still complaining of the headache, so we all stayed home yesterday. In reality, he was easily fine by noon, but the thought of getting us all prepared and out of the house for the day seemed unappealing by that point. So we all stayed in for the day. Aside from some naptime shenanigans on the part of both of my babes, it was a pretty mellow day. I did some dusting in the family room and scrubbed the sink and tub while the kids were playing. I was also able to get the dishwasher unloaded and the garbage out, so one cannot say I spent the entire day goofing off. When the kids did finally nap, I updated my work webpage.

The day was a funny one for Violet as had three baths yesterday. She decided to give herself a full-body spa treatment with her oatmeal then I was calling in to work and telling Coralie we weren’t coming. Bath 1. Then she painted her face with spaghetti at suppertime and put applesauce in her hair. Bath 2. Then she came running when I was drawing Milo’s bath because she wants to be in the tub any time there’s water in there. Bath 3. She also threw a puzzle piece in the toilet and ate half a crayon yesterday. Welcome to toddlerhood!!

Milo, well... Milo has had a gargantuan case of the whinies -- which I tolerated when his head hurt, but he was feeling fine this morning. He whined all the way to daycare because I shut off the show he was watching so we could leave (I told him he wouldn’t be home to see the end, grr…) and then because his winter coat is too big (it’s a Carhartt with Richard’s company logo on it and it really IS too big), and then because his car seat straps were too tight and I didn’t warm the car or give him a blanket this morning. Argh! And the radio was playing a song he didn’t know and Violet was laughing too loud and I tied his shoes too tight and whatever… When we finally got to daycare -- it was an excruciating four minutes -- he told me the real issue: I wanted daddy to hug me this morning. Me, too, baby... me, too...