Sunday, September 6, 2009

Cold Feet?

Footed jammies are the best. Well, not my cup of tea, but for a baby they are perfect. It's like wrapping them in a second skin before bed, certain to keep them warm when they inevitably pull their covers off of them in the night.

After a long, long day I mustered up the energy to wash the few dishes that remained in the sink. We don't have a dishwasher so I wash dishes at least 7-10 times a day. It's so defeating when you get them all done and then notice that butter knife laying on the table. I give C her bath in the sink because bending over the tub is something that my creaky body can not tolerate. I guess when she gets a little bigger I won't have a choice, but then again, she'll be "solid" by then and I won't have to worry about her slipping away and going down the drain. Anyhow, you know the drill. Clean the sink, prepare for bath, chase child around living room, undress child - whoops poopy diaper, clean diaper, put child in sink. Then the hard part. Keep child from pulling the drain plug out and chewing it, turning on the scalding water, remaining seated and somewhat still. In our case, lather up a wild mane of hair, scrub and then try and rinse as much soap out as possible. Drain the sink, dry the babe, comb hair, diaper and finish the squeaky clean situation with the last CLEAN pair of comfy cotton footed jammies. Now you are thinking, perfect! There's probably a little milk in this scenario and then off to bed, right? Wrong.

Now that the baby is clean and ready for bed, she gets loaded up in the stroller to take the puppy for his nightly walk. She usually likes this walk. She sucks vigorously on her binky as she stares up at the trees and sky. It's the perfect way to calm her down and get her nice and relaxed before bed. On most nights as soon as we get home from our walk, I take her upstairs and put her to bed. This night in particular I did not bring her milk along on the walk, I figured I'd give it to her when we got back.

We get home and I de-collar the dog of the walking collar and re-collar him with his inside collar. I take the baby out of the stroller and put her in the kitchen - now I am completely exhausted at this point. I'm standing there in the kitchen thinking about how in just a few short minutes I can retire to the couch where I will lay motionless for at least fifteen minutes, staring at the ceiling, before I will decide to do my favorite thing - eat dessert and possibly read a little or watch TV before I too, drift over to dreamland. The thought of relaxing put a little hop in my step and as I was pouring the milk into the sippy cup, I look over and you will never guess what I see...

Little C, in her nice comfy footed jammies, is S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G in Quincy's water dish. That's right STANDING in three inches of water - in her footed jammies - the last clean pair she has! UGH! You can only imagine that my dessert and rest was preempted as I undressed the 'already ready for bed' child, redressed her in some sort of sleeping attire (something nowhere as comfy as footed jammies) and eventually put her to sleep!

Did I mention that she's into everything? Exactly why is it that kids make an absolute dash to any and all areas/things that are not intended for them? After she was asleep, seeing the trail of water across the kitchen floor provided a little (more) comic relief to my day. But cleaning it up reminded me of just how exhausting raising a toddler can be.

I'll save what happened in the morning for another day. Let's just say that it left me unexpectedly cleaning (on my hands and knees) the dining room floor at 7:30 in the morning. (Did I mention that I'm not a morning person?)