So having a small window of toddler free time when he has a nap is great. Having that time sucked up when the baby decides to wake up and eat and then eat some more, is not great: you don’t get a lot of the small amount of stuff done. You end up taking like 40 min to so a 15 min job because you have to stop start a lot. It gets frustrating.
My husband runs his own design business, and works from home a lot. Before I went on maternity leave he would have my 2 year old on the days I was at work. Trying to run a business while entertaining a toddler is not fun, as your mind has to jump a lot from one task to the next, all the while a small person is in the corner playing with something they shouldn’t or eating a mystery non-food (probably) item. I am ever so thankful for my husband doing this (he is a very involved chap) but I often found myself telling him not to set too many tasks for himself when he had the little guy. It would just be demoralising at the end of the day. It’s the same trying to run a house with the same distractions. Credit where credit is due, my husband has a great perspective on the role of a mother and fully respects it as the role that it is- a full time job. And so with my mind jumping from one task to another, getting frustrated at the lack of progress I was feeling I was making today, my husband reminds me that this is the job, and take comfort and happiness it what I have been able to get done. And so what have I got done today?
- well I’ve pumped several times- something I was not able to achieve with my first 3. The latest addition has only had 1 formula bottle her whole life. While some women have this amazing ability to breast feed easily, and others have got there with a little help; I have never been able to. However, this time around I have been able to express my milk 🙂 it’s time consuming and my toddler does get bored for 15-20 slots through out the day but feeding the baby only my milk is a big deal for me 🙂
- I’ve fed and changed the baby (a lot)
- finally got around to organise the frozen milk in the freezer (see above)
- cleaned the kitchen (please note we have a crazily small kitchen so this does not take very long)
- and sort of tidied the living room… sort of. yes this does mean putting the toys they’ve left in here into a little pile for them to “put away” – aka them taking it to their room and putting down probably.
“Tidy your room” – I actually like my kids room to have times of messy, like kids should be kids and play. ‘cook dinner’ for their cars etc. What I don’t like is danger- like leaving skipping ropes and lego on the floor. What I don’t like is carelessness- loosing puzzle pieces for example. And so the catch all phrase to make sure there is a bit of order in there is “tidy your room”. Now #2 doesn’t take well to general instructions like “tidy up”. It’s that that instruction is just to vague for him, and so for him its “put the puzzles away” then “put the cars away” and so on. Time consuming. When all I want to do is say to all of them “tidy up” and then walk away. But alas I can’t… well really its “shouldn’t” as I often do this…sigh… And then tbh I end up getting frustrated at repeating myself (tidy up)- when I really know this is not he most effective way to get things done with him. That being said #1 understands what “tidy up” means and quite frankly takes her sweet time to do it. This I can’t abide- kids need to obey and obey when they are told, not in their own time. As I say to them ” Do as you are told, when you are told”
Children are odd creatures. My 2 year old for example, in the morning will play with the eldest 2 happily, but right now is sitting next to me on the sofa and won’t go and play with them. I don’t know why. I mean his dad and I are just sitting here on out computers. Right now the 3 of them are supposed to be playing for a while, before I make dinner and get my Wednesday Special Lesson ready. ( AKA Sunday school on a Wednesday- like a mid week kids church time)
And so the time has come for me to get back “to it”- the jumping from one thing to the next for the next little while, until we’ve put the kids to bed. Wish me luck 🙂