Back To Normal…

For the first time in a week and a half, The Princess is at daycare today so it is just me and Pumpkin. The house is strangely quiet, and Pumpkin is in her crib playing quietly (she’s kicking the toy on the side of the crib, so I keep hearing “Hey Diddle Diddle” over the monitor). The doctor had advised us that she should take two one-hour naps daily, and to put her in her crib for an hour – if she doesn’t sleep during that time, if she screams or plays, that is fine, but she needs to get used to the rest (Hubby, when he heard that, said, “Dang! She’s hard core!”). As a result of Pumpkin’s crib time, I’ve had much mommy-time: Swept and mopped the kitchen floor, emptied and filled the dishwasher, scrubbed the upstairs toilet (I hate toilet-scrubbing!), and even had a bit of time to sit down with a good book (“Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld, if you were curious).

Feels like I can finally fall back into the groove of life, post-holiday. What a relief. It was lovely to have Hubby home for two three-day weekends in a row, but we were both useless yesterday after we took turns staying up all night with Pumpkin. She cried and cried with a hoarse, horrible cry, and it was obvious to us all that she wasn’t feeling right. Hubby took her on two drives around the town (once at midnight and the other at about 2 a.m.) hoping to get her to sleep, though it only worked once. Yesterday was a bit rough for us. We took turns with the kids – one would stay awake and alert and the other would pass out and nap! She slept much better last night, but I still have these lingering dark bags beneath my eyes.

We are now out of the Bermuda Triangle of holidays. I did notice, however, while I was out shopping yesterday, that all of the Valentine’s Day stuff is already out. Can’t we get a little break from it all?