Rain Day
Ugh. It's another gray and rainy day in Stuttgart. Sigh. I am one of those people who are terribly affected by the weather. I can't make lemons out of lemonade, it's just who I am. I am not an optimist by any stretch of the imagination. Obviously. I can handle a gray day here and there, but anything longer than 48 hours and I start feeling as gray as the day.
We have been so bored all day long. I mean, I can always find something for myself to do. Pedicure. Manicure. Cleaning the grubby grout around the kitchen cabinet baseboards with a Q-Tip. Washing clothes. Taking out the trash. Straightening up the amazing tangle of my underwear drawer (I think that my expensive bras are mating with my cheap Target bras...actually, that would be nice to get something middle-of-the-road). Picking up the couch cushions, the train tracks, the princess castle, the play food, the sippy cups that are lodged under the couch and behind the washing machine...all of these last few things, I could do 14 times per day and still have to do one more time before bed.
I tried to build a racetrack for Josiah. We had a lunch with a surprise! Yogurt, that was the surprise! Yay! I've suggested several activities for the kids. Make a fort. Make a tent. Make an atom bomb. Just please, please leave me alone. Quit clinging to each of my legs in a vain attempt to persuade me to build the tent/fort for you. You do it. You use your imaginations. That's why God gave them to you, not to me. I mean, I have an imagination...and right about now I'm imagining myself on a warm and sunny beach with a good book, the proper SPF, no cellulite and a cold drink. Maybe a Kit Kat and some fruit and a guy to bring me more fruit, drinks and soft fluffy towels. Yeahhhhh.
Sorry. We're just very bored here. The day was not started on a positive note. Annika has started this annoying new habit of stuffing her mouth full of food when she's finishing her meal. It's as if she suddenly realizes that she has to hurry and finish. Or maybe she's trying to imitate a squirrel or a gopher, I don't know. Then, with her mouth crammed, she realizes that she's got too much in there to swallow and she starts gagging (not choking, gagging), opens her mouth and promptly deposits soggy chunks of waffle everywhere. Sometimes I won't realize that she's doing this and will find a trail of blueberry waffle glops and her at the end of the trail, looking cherubic. It's sooooo not funny. Today she started doing it again, so I got her a paper towel, held it under her chin and encouraged her to spit it out. No luck. She continued to waddle around, gagging on it and loosing glops here and there until, in an eye-rolling fit of disgust, I pinned her down and did the CPR mouth-sweep on her, thus effectively removing the waffle.
I then administered a stern lecture. Who knows what good that will do? It's days like this that I'm pretty sure they only hear 2% of what I'm telling them. For example, Josiah spent most of our soggy walk today jumping in puddles, though I told him three or four times to stop. I know, I know....awwwww...a cute little boy having fun jumping in puddles. It's so adorable, so "Singing in the Rain". YOU don't have to clean him up. And of course, as Josiah is wont to do on any walk, he fell down at least once during our walk and conveniently into a big pile of mud. So, he had mud absolutely caked on his pant knees and hands.
Just feeling a little frustrated on this rainy day. I really need to check the weather the night before and figure out some extra-special activities for the following day. Maybe I should be keeping foam balls on hand so that we can build a model of the solar system. Or we should be making art work with pasta or drinking straws or tongue depressers. Or papier mache. We should be composing plays for our puppets. I don't know.
All I know is that I feel like such a failure when the day goes to pot like this. I'm torn between feeling bad that I haven't thought up super-dooper activities like those listed above and thinking "What the hell? My parents didn't play with me every day all day and make up fun little activities all the time, and I turned out reasonably well". I mean, is it my job to keep them happy 24/7 or to be a parent and leave them to their own devices sometimes? It's a question that really gets on my nerves.
We have been so bored all day long. I mean, I can always find something for myself to do. Pedicure. Manicure. Cleaning the grubby grout around the kitchen cabinet baseboards with a Q-Tip. Washing clothes. Taking out the trash. Straightening up the amazing tangle of my underwear drawer (I think that my expensive bras are mating with my cheap Target bras...actually, that would be nice to get something middle-of-the-road). Picking up the couch cushions, the train tracks, the princess castle, the play food, the sippy cups that are lodged under the couch and behind the washing machine...all of these last few things, I could do 14 times per day and still have to do one more time before bed.
I tried to build a racetrack for Josiah. We had a lunch with a surprise! Yogurt, that was the surprise! Yay! I've suggested several activities for the kids. Make a fort. Make a tent. Make an atom bomb. Just please, please leave me alone. Quit clinging to each of my legs in a vain attempt to persuade me to build the tent/fort for you. You do it. You use your imaginations. That's why God gave them to you, not to me. I mean, I have an imagination...and right about now I'm imagining myself on a warm and sunny beach with a good book, the proper SPF, no cellulite and a cold drink. Maybe a Kit Kat and some fruit and a guy to bring me more fruit, drinks and soft fluffy towels. Yeahhhhh.
Sorry. We're just very bored here. The day was not started on a positive note. Annika has started this annoying new habit of stuffing her mouth full of food when she's finishing her meal. It's as if she suddenly realizes that she has to hurry and finish. Or maybe she's trying to imitate a squirrel or a gopher, I don't know. Then, with her mouth crammed, she realizes that she's got too much in there to swallow and she starts gagging (not choking, gagging), opens her mouth and promptly deposits soggy chunks of waffle everywhere. Sometimes I won't realize that she's doing this and will find a trail of blueberry waffle glops and her at the end of the trail, looking cherubic. It's sooooo not funny. Today she started doing it again, so I got her a paper towel, held it under her chin and encouraged her to spit it out. No luck. She continued to waddle around, gagging on it and loosing glops here and there until, in an eye-rolling fit of disgust, I pinned her down and did the CPR mouth-sweep on her, thus effectively removing the waffle.
I then administered a stern lecture. Who knows what good that will do? It's days like this that I'm pretty sure they only hear 2% of what I'm telling them. For example, Josiah spent most of our soggy walk today jumping in puddles, though I told him three or four times to stop. I know, I know....awwwww...a cute little boy having fun jumping in puddles. It's so adorable, so "Singing in the Rain". YOU don't have to clean him up. And of course, as Josiah is wont to do on any walk, he fell down at least once during our walk and conveniently into a big pile of mud. So, he had mud absolutely caked on his pant knees and hands.
Just feeling a little frustrated on this rainy day. I really need to check the weather the night before and figure out some extra-special activities for the following day. Maybe I should be keeping foam balls on hand so that we can build a model of the solar system. Or we should be making art work with pasta or drinking straws or tongue depressers. Or papier mache. We should be composing plays for our puppets. I don't know.
All I know is that I feel like such a failure when the day goes to pot like this. I'm torn between feeling bad that I haven't thought up super-dooper activities like those listed above and thinking "What the hell? My parents didn't play with me every day all day and make up fun little activities all the time, and I turned out reasonably well". I mean, is it my job to keep them happy 24/7 or to be a parent and leave them to their own devices sometimes? It's a question that really gets on my nerves.
Comments
I don't know what to tell you about entertaining your children. It was easier here in the old days when you could just turn the kids loose to run outside and didn't have to worry too much. I'll admit that I read to you all but thaty was usually at bed time. As for cabin fever, that is a real affliction in my book. I just got bikes out in the last week for the first time since November. Try to keepyour cool, Love ya'll.
Are the kids going to dye Easter eggs this year?
Anyhoo. Can you also please imagine me on the beach? I have that same fantasy about 15 times a day with pretty much the same stuff as you...the only thing I add is "no stretch marks". Sigh.