The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.
Hard to believe I have gone past the half way point on my parental leave. Where did the time go? Only three months to go before I have to go back to normal work. The long weekend was a good one and clearly it took a toll on my because today I had a case of tired parent brain. I can’t even remember how many dumb things I did today. A few examples would be forgetting Charlie’s bottle before dinner and going to take a leak and completely missing the toilet to start. Yes I did clean up. I also forget to get dressed until much later in the day. Why was it such a mess? Well the usual routine was thrown off my Mr. Charlie. Ah Day 63, you were a little messy, but good times none the less.
Who: Charlie
Charlie caught a cold on the weekend. With all of this weather change from hot to cold and rainy to dry, it is no surprise. Because a baby does not understand that when your nose is clogged, you need to breath out of your mouth, it can make for some interesting situations. Feed and sleeping are much more annoying for the baby as they just want to breath through their nostrils. But snot is in the way. So Charlie had a bit of a rough sleep last night. Well, at least before midnight. From then on he settled into a groove and slept all the way to 8:30 am. Hence the messing up of the routine. This meant there was no real point of a morning nap. We pushed it right through to afternoon nap. But for me that meant more Charlie time than normal in the morning. So we had to fill. We had a long bath, we Skyped with my parents, we went for a dog walk and finally we had lunch. Somehow, we made it to 1 pm without a meltdown. The trade-off for this? Afternoon nap was going to be solid. It was. I had to wake the little guy at 4:30 pm so we could go get his brother at school. Who knew this little shake up in routine would hit me harder than Charlie.
Where: Nowhere really
It was raining again. It has been raining pretty much since last Thursday. It sucks. The kids hate it. We hate it. It makes for challenging days. Even getting out to the mail box feels like a big deal. Sadly, being outside in the fresh air is the only thing that seems to make sick Charlie happy. He turns into a new guy outside. The forecast calls for rain again tomorrow. Sigh.
Why: Building parking garages
An episode of Bob the Builder inspired Harry to build a parking garage after dinner tonight. Our living room is full of boxes and cars. He was really sad to let it go and head off to bed. I had to negotiate that we would build even bigger parking garages tomorrow. I better go find some big boxes because I know he will ask me at 7 am if we can start laying foundation and smoothing pavement. Thanks Bob.
What: Waving
Charlie has started waving. Not at people. But at what I think is the ceiling fan coming down the stairs. Every time we come down after a nap he waves. It is so funny. He is smiling and waving like the Queen. Tomorrow I will keep an eye on it and see if it is in fact the fan. Maybe he is practicing for a grand entrance?
Photo of the Day
Construction zone.
From the Internet
The Good Men Project – Cultivating Mindfulness: Living and Loving Like a Child
I took the above picture of my youngest daughter’s first experience visiting the Pacific Ocean quite some time ago. We had visited the Oregon Coast, just outside of Eugene, when she was just three years old. The wind was blowing pretty hard, as it tends to do on the coast in the spring, and it wasn’t exactly a warm breeze, but I was excited to be able to show her the ocean for the first time. When I put her down, she ran out a little way from me, and then just crouched down and began to grab fistfuls of the cool, wet sand as I admired her against the backdrop of the surf in the distance.
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