Tuesday: Pulling it Back Together

Madrid!!

Today it felt as if things might be coming together.  Though it is a holiday week and I have had an infant and a three year old confined to the house on a rainy day, it seems that we are functioning without any seriously ruined childhoods or parental nervous breakdowns.  I was able to do a weights and abs workout that felt pretty good, there was no cardio, but my blood pressure skyrocketed when my three year old somehow maneuvered his car door latch open while we were driving.  Maybe that counts for something.

There is also the oddly frequent event that I am forgetting to eat dinner from time to time in my haste to get to bed while the baby is sleeping.  If he goes to sleep for a three hour clip at 9:00, I get everything done so that I can LEAP into bed and sleep until wrenched from a sound slumber by his cries.  While I dearly love  a newborn, the sleeplessness is killing me.

This afternoon, we Sloans attempted to go avisiting, and it actually went over like a lead balloon.  While the baby slept contentedly for the duration of our trip, the three year old refused to use the potty, refused to interact, engaged in much pouting and was eventually ignored by all.  There was not much else to be done but stage an epic battle of the wills that would have resembled something slightly worse than the struggle to regain Middle Earth. While it might not be said that I engaged in the best parenting to combat the situation, we are all still alive.  It is really the best I can currently say about anything.

Now the ride home, on the other hand, was BLEAK.  My otherwise dependable and dearly loved car overheated.  There was no choice but to park in the nearest locale and sit with my two children until help arrived.  These things only happen in the height of rush hour, so it was approximately 45 minutes before help arrived.  By this time, I had climbed into the back seat and breast fed, tried to amuse the three year old, noted that, of course, my phone battery was about to die, and contemplated escaping to Canada or Mexico and starting a new life.