Home Alone!: Days One, Two, and Three
Well, I've been home alone with the two children for three days, and I'm not dead yet. More importantly, neither are they.
It hasn't been as scary as I thought it would be. It's no fun, I'll give you that, but it's not terribly scary. My biggest concern was when I needed to deal with Mia but Norah was not sleeping. Norah digs the crying, and although I have the remarkable talent you must develop as a parent of totally ignoring a screaming child, I know that I have to take care of her eventually. Mia can deal with things pretty well on her own, but she gets bored, just like any other almost-3-year-old, and when she's stuck on the floor, she can get pretty loud in her own right.
So it's been a small challenge, but not as bad as I thought it would be. On Monday Mia had Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, so that killed a couple of hours. Mia also likes standing in her gait trainer, so that kills an hour. She is also very good at napping. She goes down around one o'clock and sleeps until 4.30. I actually have to wake her up or she would sleep longer. So that's kind of cool. Norah is getting a little better at lying in her bassinet for a little bit, so I can actually put her down for ten minutes or so while I feed Mia, which is a difficult thing to pull off. Once Mia goes down for her nap, I don't care if Norah wakes up. Last week she was sleeping all afternoon, but of course, this week it's different.
On Sunday Norah got diarrhea. Groovy. On Monday she slept but kept waking up because she was pooping. No fun. It's not that big a deal, but it's frustrating because she's tired but can't sleep. So on Tuesday I called the pediatrician and off we went. The doctor said she was okay, because she didn't have anything else that would indicate anything worse than an infection. Since then she's been drinking the Nutramigan Lipil, which is $25 bucks for a container. We got it for free from the doctor, and he said she probably won't have to be on it longer than the rest of the week, so that's cool. When she's feeling better we're going to go back to the regular formula that is milk-based, because she's been on the soy and we think that might be messing her up. We thought she might be lactose intolerant, but we're going to try it again. What the hell.
The nice thing is for the past two days, she has been napping from about 2.30-3 o'clock until 6 or so. That gives me time to get Mia up and play with her a little and get her ready to eat, and when Krys comes home she can deal with Norah. Krys is depressed whenever she has to work because she doesn't get to spend a lot of time with the children. So the fact that Norah is sleeping a little later is fine, because then she stays up a little longer and Krys can hang out with her. It's quarter to nine right now and Norah has been napping on Krys for about fifteen minutes and she's about to go down for the night (we hope). It makes the wife happy to hang with the children.
I have to survive for two more days. On Monday Mia goes to school for three days a week, so that will give me a bit of a break. Norah digs going out, just like Mia does, so today I went to the mall for a while and they were both happy. I'm sure I was quite the sight with Mia in the wheelchair and Norah in the carrier hanging from my chest. I'm Mr. Mom!
It's so nice that I haven't gone insane yet. Or maybe I'm so insane I don't even realize it! But at least the kids haven't killed me yet. Or have they ...?
It hasn't been as scary as I thought it would be. It's no fun, I'll give you that, but it's not terribly scary. My biggest concern was when I needed to deal with Mia but Norah was not sleeping. Norah digs the crying, and although I have the remarkable talent you must develop as a parent of totally ignoring a screaming child, I know that I have to take care of her eventually. Mia can deal with things pretty well on her own, but she gets bored, just like any other almost-3-year-old, and when she's stuck on the floor, she can get pretty loud in her own right.
So it's been a small challenge, but not as bad as I thought it would be. On Monday Mia had Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, so that killed a couple of hours. Mia also likes standing in her gait trainer, so that kills an hour. She is also very good at napping. She goes down around one o'clock and sleeps until 4.30. I actually have to wake her up or she would sleep longer. So that's kind of cool. Norah is getting a little better at lying in her bassinet for a little bit, so I can actually put her down for ten minutes or so while I feed Mia, which is a difficult thing to pull off. Once Mia goes down for her nap, I don't care if Norah wakes up. Last week she was sleeping all afternoon, but of course, this week it's different.
On Sunday Norah got diarrhea. Groovy. On Monday she slept but kept waking up because she was pooping. No fun. It's not that big a deal, but it's frustrating because she's tired but can't sleep. So on Tuesday I called the pediatrician and off we went. The doctor said she was okay, because she didn't have anything else that would indicate anything worse than an infection. Since then she's been drinking the Nutramigan Lipil, which is $25 bucks for a container. We got it for free from the doctor, and he said she probably won't have to be on it longer than the rest of the week, so that's cool. When she's feeling better we're going to go back to the regular formula that is milk-based, because she's been on the soy and we think that might be messing her up. We thought she might be lactose intolerant, but we're going to try it again. What the hell.
The nice thing is for the past two days, she has been napping from about 2.30-3 o'clock until 6 or so. That gives me time to get Mia up and play with her a little and get her ready to eat, and when Krys comes home she can deal with Norah. Krys is depressed whenever she has to work because she doesn't get to spend a lot of time with the children. So the fact that Norah is sleeping a little later is fine, because then she stays up a little longer and Krys can hang out with her. It's quarter to nine right now and Norah has been napping on Krys for about fifteen minutes and she's about to go down for the night (we hope). It makes the wife happy to hang with the children.
I have to survive for two more days. On Monday Mia goes to school for three days a week, so that will give me a bit of a break. Norah digs going out, just like Mia does, so today I went to the mall for a while and they were both happy. I'm sure I was quite the sight with Mia in the wheelchair and Norah in the carrier hanging from my chest. I'm Mr. Mom!
It's so nice that I haven't gone insane yet. Or maybe I'm so insane I don't even realize it! But at least the kids haven't killed me yet. Or have they ...?
posted by Greg at
8:14 PM
2 Comments:
I don't mean to sound sappy, or stalkerish - which means I'm gonna sound like both, natch - but out of all of the stuff you write, DC is probably my favorite to read; which is your favorite to write?
By
layne, at 11/8/05 4:07 PM
Definitely the original. I enjoy writing them all, but I read some other parental blogs that I think are much funnier than this one. Not that this should be funny, but I just feel like I can cut loose more over on Delenda Est Carthago. And I enjoy writing about comics, but people are so touchy about them.
And don't fret - both of your blogs are just a couple of the ones I go to pretty much every day. I get kind of disappointed when you don't post something.
By
Greg, at 11/8/05 4:18 PM
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