Some Days, Some Weeks

In the parenting world, some days and weeks are more challenging than others. Tuesday, my first day "back to work" as a solo full-time toddler caregiver was one of those days I wanted to crawl in bed at 5 pm.


On Tuesday, after having two weeks of Alan off work and extended family around, I was back on my own. Avery grabbed a bag of tortilla chips off the kitchen table—by the wrong end—dumping the entire contents. She thought she struck it rich, Marti scrambled to get some and I had to corral both of the under-3-foot terrors, Marti outside and Aves in her playpen.

That day, Avery discovered the reaction-getting fun that is hitting, pinching and head-butting. Then she opened the warming drawer on the oven and smashed my foot. Then a plate shattered while Avery was barefoot and hungry and dinner was on the stove. This was after an entire day of running after the Tasmanian Devil with ADD that Avery now is. It was one of those days you want to do a Zack Morris-style timeout and stop everyone but you in their tracks.

Desperate for a minute to unload the dishwasher, I encouraged her to chase Marti with her dino, a la this:



Poor Marti.

On Wednesday, Avery added biting into her bag of tricks. Hilarious too, she thinks. We have this heavy-duty musical stacker and after trying to slap me, she grabbed it like a bat and looked at Marti. Like, "What will happen if I bash Marti over the head with this?" Luckily for Marti's small head, I stopped this train of thought in its tracks.

None of this madness is helped by the fact that my pelvis feels like it's breaking in half and my stomach is making putting on my shoes a chore. Thank goodness for the thumps and bumps that remind me that a real person is in there.


All of that's not to say that Avery isn't just the cutest thing in the world. We're finally getting back into the groove today. Her vocab is exploding and I can't even keep up with a list. Despite her violent streak, she's learning manners and now says thank you when she gives or receives anything. She says a version of "airplane," "da-dat" is very specific to cat and anything round or clock-like is a clock, without the L. Her "eye bow" discovery is really cute when it doesn't turn into her pinching your eye lid or gouging your eye out. She's also started climbing up and down stairs on two feet, although she thinks she's way better than she really is. Gotta love confidence in a kiddo.



First haircut was Wednesday and she was a champ. Not her favorite life experience but it was over pretty quickly and she only cried a bit. It wasn't nearly as traumatizing as the pictures make it seem. I was sad to see those baby locks go, but the time had come to get rid of her "party in the front, party in the back" baby mullet. She looks like such a big girl now, and now it can all come in evenly instead of scraggly city.


These are the weeks when I don't know how it will be adding number two into our world. These are the weeks that scare me. But then Avery will practice her "I I ooh" (I love you), Alan shows up home an hour early and Avery runs back and forth between us at bedtime giving out drooly open-mouthed kisses and I remember why we're doing it all again.