This is the view that inspired today's title. Violet and I were sitting on the porch enjoying a fudgesicle when she said, "Daddy says bees make honey. Flies only make poop. Flies make poop all the time - is that right Mama? Do flies only make poop?" The bees Violet is speaking of are on our flowers in the front. There are 4 bumblebees in this picture, and there are probably at least 20 on all the flowers at any given time. So far no one has been stung.
Lately when I say I am a stay-at-home mom, I really mean it. The past few weeks I have lacked the motivation to pack up the girls and go anywhere - no weekly trips to the library, no zoo, no museum, not even one single trip to the grocery store. I might have been driving myself mad staying at home, but when I started thinking of outings I felt tired.
All this time at home has the analytical part of my brain in overdrive while the functional part of my brain must be frozen. Usually I crave at least an hour of quiet while the girls nap, but today is too quiet and my brain is toast. I am not sure how to best write "stream of consciousness" but here were some of my thoughts...
Man, I wish Anara would stop banging her head on the floor when she gets mad. Oh well - at least she has started to move to the rug to do her banging on a softer surface.
What am I going to fix for dinner.
What tricks should I use to get Anara to eat dinner?
Do they still make pudding pops? Why didn't my mom ever buy those?
Will my kids be severely tramatized because of my lack of motivation and structure recently? Do I need some sort of daily lesson plan to keep their brains engaged? I wonder how much TV they can safely watch.
I hope Anara's head-banging isn't causing permanent damage.
What should we eat for dinner? (This has really been an issue for me lately. I usually love to cook and can't figure out why my brain isn't coming up with healthy and tasty ideas for meals. Maybe it's the not-quite harmonic cries of "up please" encircling my legs while I try to cook, or the fact that I have to wrestle with the girls to eat what I fix so macaroni always looks like a good option?)
I wonder if Beethoven's "Fur Elise" will always make Violet think about the ice cream truck? (Every time this song comes on her CD player, Violet says, "Mama, is that the ice cream truck?" Our one legitimate ice cream truck, Mr. Swirl, plays "Fur Elise". The rest of the ice cream trucks are ugly, rusted out vans playing electronic songs with "HELLO" interjected into the song. Some of our ice cream trucks even make their rounds as late as 10:30. You might be wondering what kind of ice cream truck makes their rounds at 10:30pm - maybe the kind selling more than just ice cream?)
What should I fix for dinner tonight?
When will Anara's surgery be scheduled?
And that is a tiny glimpse of my less than exciting thoughts while I folded 3 baskets of clean laundry (yes Mom, I actually had 3 baskets of wrinkly, old laundry to fold that wasn't crisp from the dryer).
Now I am wondering what other stay-at-home moms do and think about. Usually I am preoccupied filling sippy cups, wiping bottoms and noses, and reading stories, but when I am not, you see what happens. What do other moms preoccupy themselves with at home?
My brain was definitely ready for Violet to wake up from her nap after 1.5 hours of silence. Anara was still sleeping so Violet and I headed outside for a fudgesicle. Once it started dripping she was too freaked out to eat so it ended up on her instead of in her.
The only logical way to clean up after a fudgesicle
A little modesty
Epilogue: Hopefully I don't sound too down or dull. Usually life at home with two toddlers is pretty exciting, and I did finally make it to the grocery store yesterday afternoon. We have (I) been a little down since Anara's surgery was cancelled, but I think the clouds are beginning to break. Nothing a couple nights of good sleep can't cure.
8 comments:
Don't worry about the head banging with Anara. Both my boys went through that. Carter did it for the longest time. He would either slap himself in the forehead over and over, get down on all fours and slam his head on the floor, or go up to the wall and bang his head on the wall. I read in a magazine article a while back that it is actually a sign of intelligence if you can believe that. And I have heard from several moms to just ignore them when they do this, its partly an attention game.
You should be very please with the fact that you actually folded the laundry. Around here, laundry baskets often serve a dual-purpose of laundry basket/dresser drawer all in one. The laundry baskets miraculously empty themselves by the end of the week, because, after all, people need to wear the clothes. True, they are a little wrinkly when you go to put them on, but my husband has made a nifty discovery. If you spray said item of clothing with spray starch and then throw it back in a hot dryer for 3-5 minutes, it comes out just fine! Necessity is the mother of invention, I guess.
In these parts, we don't even have ice cream trucks! However, we recently visited a friend at the beach and were so thrilled to see an ice cream truck... but we were a little perplexed as the crackling speakers blared out the most annoying and tingy version "Jingle Bells"!!! What ice cream truck plays Christmas carols!!!! We bought ice crean anyways.
Thanks for commenting on my blog, I love to meet other adoptive parents and people from IN! I was actually born in Ft Wayne. Most of my extended family lives there, I miss it... anyway I loved your stream of thoughts, sounds familiar! hope it is ok to add you to my list of blogs I read!
I too find myself thinking about pudding pops! My mom didn't buy them for us either; I suspect they were expensive. I've often wondered if they're still around and why I don't hear about them anymore---where is Bill Cosby anyway???
Well, personally, when I am folding laundry, I'm solving algabraic equations in my mind. Whatever! Your thoughts seem a lot more coherent than mine. Typically, I'm thinking, "Why do my clothes not look at neat as my Mom's after I fold them." Speaking of Mom, she never bought pudding pops either. She made them herself by putting chocolate pudding in tupperware popscicle molds. They were never quite like the real pudding pops, which my grandmother sometimes bought, because they were icy and not smooth and creamy. But I didn't care.
I understand completely!!! I have found that Downey Wrinkly release spray is a great invention :) I have at least 3 loads still sitting around waiting to be put away. But, since the weather won't make up its mind we are living out of the rubbermaids tubs with fall clothing in them plus all the stuff from the dressers, I can't fit both in them! Stay at home moms have a HARD job. Hang in there. Treat yourself to girls night out for desert and coffee!
Ice cream trucks! I don't think we have any legitimate ice cream trucks around here. We've got two or three that circle the neighborhoods and they all have that horrible HELLO in them. And we also have one that comes around every night around 10ish. He likes to stop at a particular house across the street too.. Hmm.. Wonder what he's selling to buying. I dont ask :) I don't really want to know. I just sympathize with you on those darn trucks! :)
Post a Comment