One of Those Days

I'm happy to say that today was one of those days that I'm happy to be a mom.

I actually went to bed at a decent hour last night and slept pretty well. I got up early, got ready, and took Ethan to his Grandma's so I could go to an eye appointment. The doctor was great--gave me a new pair of contacts to try out and didn't even dilate my eyes.

Then I picked up Ethan and took him to a little coffee gathering at my friend Lana's house. She has a beautiful yard and eventually Ethan joined the big kids playing ball and swinging. He actually fell on his head when he was swinging, but he ended up being okay. I didn't get to talk to many of the other adults all that much because I had to keep an eye on Ethan, but it was still fun to be out of the house and experience a social event.

Somehow Ethan lasted through a trip to the grocery store while he ate his cut up pear, and despite the long morning, he was just as patient as ever. What a great kid.

We got the groceries inside, made grilled ham and cheese for lunch, read some books, and he went down for nap.

He slept for almost three hours, during which I got a whole list of things done on the computer for next school year.

I know, I know. What a great day! Well, it gets better!

When Ethan woke up, we took his snack and trucks outside and played in the shade.

The weather was perfect outside--warm, but not too hot; breezy, but not too windy.

Ethan explored while I sat and watched in a lawn chair. He helped me check all my flowers and pull some weeds, but mostly just gave me hugs and laughed a lot. Then he lined up his trucks, pushed some on the swing, then went down the slide a bunch.

After that, he came inside and helped me get dinner ready--a big salad with chicken strips, nectarines, and leftover pasta salad. Everything was ready right when Tim got home from work, and Ethan ate a ton--everything on his plate, plus some.

Then we were walking around the front yard, his grandparents stopped by, so he chased Grandma and Grandpa around, waved bye-bye to them, talked for a while about daddy driving away on his "vroom-vroom" (motorcycle), then waited for me while I got my tennis shoes on for our walk.

Aren't all these details just sickening? Well, the walk was the best I've had in months--we walked almost an hour and I didn't feel completely exhausted by the end and somehow my bladder wasn't bursting three minutes into the walk. There were tons of flowers blooming along the way.

Ethan and I got home, he took a bath, we read some books, put a teddy bear to bed in baby's crib, and he went to sleep. He did cry a bit, but that's probably because he had had such a great day and was sad to see it end!

NOT EVERY DAY HAS BEEN THIS GREAT! There have been days when I've longed for Tim to come home--but then when he does, I'm just bitter that I had to make dinner. There are days when I try ALL DAY LONG to get the kitchen cleaned up, and when bed time comes around, it's still a total mess. Monday night I told Tim about that, and he said, "There's still time. . . ." It was 9:30. ha ha. There are days when I'm so tired that I can hardly wait for Ethan's naptime so I can take my own nap. Other days I'm so tired of figuring out things to do at home (and Ethan is probably just as exhausted from this) that we get in the car and creatively make up errands to run. I still have a long list of spaces that I need to de-clutter and walls that need to be washed, but somehow I'm getting no closer to even beginning those tasks. But who cares?

I'm not sure if having two kids will be better or worse. Will I at least feel like I have more to do with two little ones around? Or will I just become more frustrated that accomplishing anything on a list is next to impossible? Time with Ethan is good. I'm cherishing it while I can. . . . Today was one of those good days. . . .