Some days...

Some days, it has to be said, I don’t have my Mommy-A- Game on. Most days, my morning parental duties include wake up, breakfast and daycare drop off for Toby. (The first of which are Daddy-supervised the second one being old hat.) I can drop Toby off at day care with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. Not to brag or anything – hahaha J

On Fridays, however, we switch things up. Friday mornings Rob takes Toby to the YMCA for his very own invention of swimming lessons. I’m not QUITE sure what these “lessons” entail but I hear a lot of talk about the “real shower” in the change room afterwards. I suspect the two of them take a quick dip in the icy-cold YMCA pool and then splash each other in the shower for the remaining half hour; either way they both enjoy some lovely daddy-son bonding time while I get an opportunity to spend a morning with my daughter.

The morning at home usually consists of breakfast, a short play and then a bottle and a nap. Having been the soul source of all nutrition and sleep for the first 6 months of this child’s life you’d THINK that this would be considered one of my easier mornings. To be honest, it usually is. Today – not so much.

I blame it on the time change. Mia has been getting up at 5am for a bottle and we’ve been giving in and letting her have it. What I HAVEN’T been used to is the need for a SECOND bottle after breakfast and before her first nap. I mean REALLY. T he child is 23 pounds and barely pushing 10 months. She is HARDLY wasting away. Does one REALLY need 3 separate feedings before 8:30 am???

By the time her crankiness ensued at 8:30 am I was quite ready for a nap. So I made her a bottle, rocked her while she enjoyed it and then went to put her down. Mia gave me look that said it all, “Why, THANK YOU, mom, for finally feeding me. Lets go back and play now!”

I ignored THE LOOK and resumed the naptime routine and put her down in her crib.

She squawked.

She chattered to herself.

She (I CAN ONLY IMAGINE) stood and banged her little fists on the side of her crib as hard as she could to get my attention.

I TRIED to ignore it but by the time she got to the full on “COME GET ME MOMMY” wail I had deluded myself enough to think that I could solve this nap rebellion by going in and trying to rock her to sleep.

The victory was evident on her face before I had even stepped into the room.

I TRIED the rock to sleep. I also tried some light back patting (which is always hard to do when they are crawling around in the crib.) Before long I had resorted to PLEADING with my 10 month old, “PLEASE, Mia, just go to sleep. Daddy is going to KILL me if he gets home and finds you still awake.”

Surprisingly, that didn’t work either.

And so I got her up. I figured I would put her back down 20 minutes later once she REALIZED that she was tired and that it WAS, in fact, nap time. That was my PLAN anyways, before she tore down the corner-shelving unit, smashing Daddy’s weather gauge and the giant daisy plant onto the floor.

It was at that precise moment that Rob arrived home. There we were; right in the middle of nap time – wide awake and covered in dirt and electrical cords with batteries, daisy heads and pieces of cabinetry strewn across the floor.

The look on Rob’s face echoed the surprise look on his daughter’s. (Minus the triumphant I-got-out-of-my-nap component, of course.)

Needless to say, I was quickly ushered out of the house and on my way to work before I knew it. Some days it’s a good thing Mia has two parents.