It isn't normally like this. Or, it wasn't. Last summer, the system was the same. Zoe had some school. Max had none. In between, Erik and I took the kids camping, hiking, and to Salt Lake. We haven't been camping but we've been to Salt Lake and hiking. But, and this is the key to the change, Erik hasn't been with us.
I knew when he got a job, things would be different. It is not as fun not having him home. But I didn't realize that lack of fun would translate into a lot of domestic chores and a lot of stay-at-home-momness that has been great but has been constant. Erik broke up the constancy. Or, is it just because we were doing things all four of us that it seemed more like a summer adventure, even if we were just going, like we did yesterday, to the grocery store.
I've done super fun things with other moms but that momness leads to more mom and kid activities and more thoughts and talks about childcare and naps and potty-training which is not the talk I had last summer with Erik which was more the talk about how many tents do we really need to own? (Four was the answer last summer. This summer's answer? Zero). Play dates and how to wash bottles has occupied more of my mental space than ever before.
I don't know if there's a shoving-out happening--that I'm avoiding working, or if this is a great break from work, but, as the school your impends, I don't know how my brain is going to stop commenting on the number of sparkles on Zoe's dress and how to start talking about, well, see, here's a big problem, I can't even think about what I'm supposed to be thinking about. Poor brain.
Of course, the other big component of the grand domesticization (sp? I'd like to blame poor summer brain but I never can spell made up words) is the kitchen remodel which involved:
Garage cleaning so everything in the kitchen could fit in there.
The cleaning out of the closets to go with the garage sale that goes with the cleaning of the garage.
The closets and all other open spaces were filled with kitchenware.
The empty spaces in the kitchen were filled by carpenters and tile-folks and long conversations about the height of shelves.
My summer of charcuterie turned into the summer of construction sausage.
But now it is all better.
And tomorrow, I'm going mushroom hunting with Max and Z. Erik can't come. He has to work, but maybe we'll bring home a surprise.
1 comment:
I remember the huge difference between our first child, which was all about the co-parenting and sharing everything, mainly because we were both students and neither of us had a real job, and the second, when my husband was working and I kind of fell apart. Sounds to me like you're doing really, really well. And skirt sparkles and mushrooms--that sounds pretty durn good as well.
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