Too much of a good thing

The inferiority of being a WOHM is never more apparent than in the summer. Everyone else (seemingly) is out lounging by the pool, bouncing from vacation to play group to day camp and back to the pool, while my days continue to slog along at the office. “Why doesn’t mommy’s work ever stop?,” C asked her dad recently. Hmmm, well that’s a great question, and I’ll explain it one day when I figure it out myself.

At any rate, enter the SAHD, at least for the summer…being university faculty does have its advantages, and one of those is the celebrated “school schedule”. Brian has done a magnificent job this summer of taking C to and fro. At the beginning of the summer, I scouted out a whole bunch of possibilities and printed out a monthly calendar with opportunities on different days. Some things are scheduled, some are not…all the names and operating hours of our local (within an hour) Children’s museums, exhibits, special park events, etc. Within the past 2 weeks, they have been to a Cincinnati Reds game, swimming at Mimi’s, picnicking/bike riding at the Reservoir, weekly gymnastics, came to Dayton and had lunch with me one day…I mean, the child is clearly not suffering. But, in my haze of the waning days of this pregnancy, I just wasn’t sure I was doing enough. Had to do some more.

So this past Saturday, after having to go into work yet again (but only was there for about 15 minutes, max!), and having to take C with me and make her sit in the patient education room while I saw a patient, I attempted to make it up to her yet again. We went to The Greene afterwards, shopped for slippers for her, found the perfect pair (clearance at Stride Rite no less!), putzed around Books & Company, found a few new Easy Readers for her, ate delicious macaroni & cheese at the Noodle Company, and headed home in a driving rainstorm (which we desperately needed). We hit the library on the way home (MORE BOOKS!) and picked up a few CD’s and movies too. God bless the library system, though ours is about to go under…

On Saturday night, we went to our Saturday evening service so we could hear the start of a series by one of the associate pastors that we’ve been looking forward to. Saturday evening, Brian headed to a friend’s for card night, and C and I came home to paint toenails and have Movie Night.

Oh, but I couldn’t stop there. Nope, on Sunday morning, we headed to Dayton to the local dinner theater which was featuring their production of “Annie.” They have a Sunday brunch that I thought would be just perfect for C and I. She was extraordinarily patient but I definitely overestimated her attention span, interest, and overall tolerance for the activity. There was lots of waiting (wait to check in, wait to be seated, wait to get food, wait again to go through the buffet line, wait for the show to start) but when the show started, she seemed totally captivated. That lasted for two songs. Then she had to go potty – we almost missed “Tomorrow” when she said she had to go, and I said, “Let’s at least hear this song, then we’ll go.” At one point, she was so fidgety she actually fell off her chair and I had to carry her (stifling very loud crying) and kind of run out of the nearest exit. After intermission, she had more interest in drawing on a pad of paper than she did in the show. And, of course, the fascination with the bathroom. I think we visited six times total, make that seven if you count the trip right before we left.

By Sunday evening, she was in desperate need of a reset, but that unfortunately did not happen. I guess I thought she would sleep it off. Turns out, she did not, and she was receiving her first spanking about 6:56am this morning. Not a pretty picture. After a few more spankings, some breakfast, and some room time, she apparently made a full recovery and was an absolute peach for her dad all day. They spent somewhere in the neighborhood of THE ENTIRE DAY swimming at Mimi’s, without a break. She even played in the sprinkler after dinner.

After bath and jammies and a couple books, it still seemed as though she’d never close her eyes. She finally did, though and now sleeps peacefully. Here’s hoping for another dandy day tomorrow.