A Day In The Life

Momo, we love you and miss you. Please come back. This post is for you.

7:45--I am awakened from my Nytol-laced sleep by Will fussing. In the living room I discover Zombie Andrew in pjs in front of the tv, head slightly cocked to one side, with a look on his face that I can only describe as haunting in its impression of a mental disability. Thoughts of ADHD flood my brain. He is sitting in his lion chair. In front of him is his red tray with a single slice of bread on it. "Hi, Mommy. Daddy went a work." No more Nytol for me.


Andrew placed this car on Will and got upset if I tried to remove it.

9am--everyone is dressed and fed. Will is back down. Andrew and I polish all the wood in the house. He sprays and we both wipe. "Mommy, I doing such a good job!"





10--craft time. We make rockets ("like Owen's!" I wish). Andrew's has stairs and a paper guy. He learns the word astronaut. I consider going to the Air and Space. Too much work.

11:15--Woodley Playground. Disappointment upon discovering that the playground has been plundered of all sand/dirtbox toys. Make due with swings and slide. A stylish grandmother of twin boys (15 mo) in identical hundred dollar outfits informs me that she cares for the twins bc her daughter "has an extremely important job" and she herself is "a child care specialist." ("Well, I just wrote an award-winning play, so I'm not sweating it, either.") I wait for her to ask me how much money is in my checking account. Then she guesses that Andrew is not yet 2 and spends the rest of the time talking on her cell. Andrew doesn't want the toddlers touching his stroller, where his baby is sleeping. "No, OUR baby!"

12:30--Cleveland Park Library. Andrew is trying to knock a display book to the ground to express his rage that we are there instead of at "a park with hoops, soccer balls, cars." Second wave of guilt over bad mothering. Book mission aborted; lunch quest begun.

12:45--Connecticut Ave watching road construction

1:00--7-11 for a "black donought" and a banana. Andrew pays. A stranger helps me push my stroller through the almost too-tight door of my building.

3:00--lunch eaten, an hour of books lulls me to sleep mid-read. Andrew is totally unaffected. I try to impose some quiet time, leaving A alone. He later comes running up to me in the computer room very proud: "Mommy, come look what I doing!" In his room on the floor are a bunch of cut up pieces of paper, left over from our morning craft, and my cutting shears. Big sharp shears. "Don't worry, Mommy, I being so careful." We cut for over an hour (with kid scissors)and try to make shapes. Will joins us.

5:30--Andrew plays with cars in water aka Bath time. Will is up, so making dinner plus bathing = poor execution of both. Andrew requests dinner in tub, is obliged. Operation Starve Him Till He Eats a Real Meal is successful. (Yes, Dino Bites with ketchup and black beans do constitute a real meal.)



6:37: Brigham arrives. Andrew is removed from the tub and dressed.

7:00-- Will's down for the night. B and I eat tuna casserole, Andrew eats dessert
Family prayer, kneeling in A's room. Group hug afterwards. "We a team!"
Books read while all three of us share a twin bed. I am reminded of how violent and possibly inappropriate Five Chinese Brothers is. Cutting heads off, burning at the stake: its straight out of an unfortunate Sunday School lesson.
"Goodnight, Daddy. Stay, Mommy." A few verses of As I Have Loved you combined with some back tickles and Andrew succumbs.

7:45--Brig and I watch Malcom in the Middle and eat seconds. We are off duty until the midnight awakening that we know is inevitable. We once again fail to heed the warnings of experience and don't turn in until 11.