You’d have thought – with roughly two months off, no extra-curriculars to coach, and a slightly more self-sufficient child – that I would have time to do at least a little blogging this summer. What the hell happened?
I had this gorgeous idea, going into the summer, that I would have all sorts of time to do stuff. My quilting projects, some video editing, photography, bellydance . . . a little of all of it. For sure, I thought, I would be able to do some frequent posting about all our summer adventures, Zoë and I. I must have been smoking crack. Or delusional. I knew I was being ambitious. That was a major underestimation.
At the very start of this summer, Zoë decided to drop down to one nap. Okay, fine. I had been expecting her to keep two through the summer, but whatever. I could deal with that. What I hadn’t counted on, somehow (remember, I was delusional), was how much attention and energy her little 15-month-old self would require. I mean, demand. From the moment she woke up it was go-time. We would be off and running until nap time, at which point she would just conk out.
Now, theoretically, nap time would be the time I could use to get some of that stuff done. Unfortunately, I spent most of it doing trivial things like eating, making phone calls, dishes, laundry, weeding or watering the garden. It’s ridiculous how fast an hour can go by doing what feels like nothing. Just as I would sit down to accomplish some of the stuff I would hear a little voice ringing out from upstairs. And then we’re off and running again until bedtime!
At one point this summer, I arranged to have my mom watch Zoë a couple of times so I could get to work on the stuff. On one day in particular, it was my goal to sand and paint two barstools my dad got at a garage sale. I was going to spray paint them, so not a huge project for a day. By the time I dropped Zoë off, got home, ran back out to Home Depot for a random tool I didn’t know I needed (stupid Canadian-made barstools), got home, ran back out for a quick lunch, got home again . . . I got one coat of paint on one stool before I had to pick her up. That was a month ago. Seriously.
I sound like I’m complaining about my summer. That it was all just frustration at not being able to do what I wanted to do. Truthfully, I had a total blast this summer. Yeah, I got nothing done. Nothing except some of the most amazing moments with Zoë to date. She grew up so much this summer, learned so many new things, and I got to see it all. It’s silly to say, but I really felt like I had something to do with all she learned for once. Because I was there. And not at work.
But, I wasn’t blogging about it. Oh well.
As a sort of post-script, part of the issue was my sad little personal laptop. I got it all hooked up in the kitchen so I could attempt to check my email and do an occasional post while she ate or watched Dora. Turns out the wireless card is so old it wouldn’t connect to our new router. And, go figure, we have plenty of other things to spend some money on besides a new card. Plus, BJ didn’t feel like putting service pack 2 on the laptop. C’est la vie.Labels: blog, parenting, zoe
