I feel horribly sorry for my children quite often. Some days they wake up cranky, and sometimes I wake up cranky. The day I had planned was ideal. We wake up, actually get dressed and do our hair, go to the library for toddler story time, come home and play with friends in sprinkler until nap time when we all drift into a blissful two hour nap, waking up refreshed and ready to face "bewitching hour" (the time between 4 and 7 pm when all the mothers in the neighborhood are anxiously walking the sidewalks with their antsy, cranky kids waiting for dinner to be done and Dad to come home.)
Maybe I should just leave the description of our day at that...it would be much happier. But this is how the day went. We got dressed, one of us got our hair done and it wasn't me. We picked up friend Charlotte and went to reading time. Reading time was fine, meaning the kids were well behaved. The substitute reading lady was about as interesting as a 5th period geometry teacher reading from a textbook. I sat the entire time imaging that we were really in my sister's reading time in Utah. I then tried to procure a new library card while my two children and their little friend ran up and down the stairs without shoes on. I don't know where their shoes were, so don't ask.
At this point I have suddenly lost the desire to describe the rest of the day, though it carried on much as it had started. Needless to say, when my poor husband got home from a "difficult day at work" (you'll have to read his blogs about what a Navy Shore Tour is like) I took off. I had an entire hour until he had to leave for another appointment. So what does a mother with an entire hour to kill for herself do? I bought address labels at Target. Then I got a Orange Cream Slush from Sonic and took one to my mom at work (where we bother her far too often) and she listened, as she always does to my rantings about the woes of motherhood--she understands...she had 7.
There is no one quite like my husband to make one feel guilty for ever wanting selfish time away from the kids. I came home to a clean house and two adorable toddlers running to the door saying "I love you Mommy!" He knows just how to fix things sometimes.
I have decided that like everything else in life, the endevors that are most challenging provide us with the richest rewards. There is nowhere I would rather be than at home with my girls...or sometimes aimlessly wandering the isles of Target.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Thursday, May 12, 2005
A Day at the Zoo
We decided to be of the spontaneous kind today and try an adventure (farther away than the neighborhood park). Those of you with kids know that "spontaneous" means at least 2 hours of preparation to actually make it out the door and en route to destination. We met up with some friends at the zoo. They too have kids so our "delayed" departures got us there right about the same time.
I just had to share what a joy days like this can be. It started out hot and hungry but we saw some animals and the kids were entertained. Abby, my two year old jumped wildly at each exhibit and behaved as though it was her favortie animal in the whole entire world. Each time I had to literally peel her off of the railing to move to the next animal. My three year old Haley had brought along her "connected at the hip cousin" Madeline so she was happy regardless. We "eee eeed" at all the monkey cages, avoided the dirty/naughty Mandril, pointed at huge elephant poop, giggled at the bear tinckling off the cliff and stared at two mating Galapagos Turtles for a very long time.
We really did have a fun time. The trip ended with a lot of traffic, some napping, some screaming, a couple of chicken nuggets, smiles and stinky pants. My favorite though was at dinner tonight when we asked the three year old what her favorite part of the day was. Hands down was when the two year old dropped her toy cell phone into the Sea Lion pool. I will be on pins and needles in days to come while scanning the news for reports of strange sounds coming from the bowels of an expired Sea Lion. "This just in. A bizarre turn of effents today at the Houston zoo where KiKi, our 12 year old Seal suddenly died Thursday. When examined closer, a muffled noise could be heard in the beloved animals innards. We can't quite make it out but it almost sounds like, 'Hi. I'm Hello Kitty".
I just had to share what a joy days like this can be. It started out hot and hungry but we saw some animals and the kids were entertained. Abby, my two year old jumped wildly at each exhibit and behaved as though it was her favortie animal in the whole entire world. Each time I had to literally peel her off of the railing to move to the next animal. My three year old Haley had brought along her "connected at the hip cousin" Madeline so she was happy regardless. We "eee eeed" at all the monkey cages, avoided the dirty/naughty Mandril, pointed at huge elephant poop, giggled at the bear tinckling off the cliff and stared at two mating Galapagos Turtles for a very long time.
We really did have a fun time. The trip ended with a lot of traffic, some napping, some screaming, a couple of chicken nuggets, smiles and stinky pants. My favorite though was at dinner tonight when we asked the three year old what her favorite part of the day was. Hands down was when the two year old dropped her toy cell phone into the Sea Lion pool. I will be on pins and needles in days to come while scanning the news for reports of strange sounds coming from the bowels of an expired Sea Lion. "This just in. A bizarre turn of effents today at the Houston zoo where KiKi, our 12 year old Seal suddenly died Thursday. When examined closer, a muffled noise could be heard in the beloved animals innards. We can't quite make it out but it almost sounds like, 'Hi. I'm Hello Kitty".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)