How Do They Do It?

My husband is off deer hunting this week so since Saturday morning at 4:00 a.m. I’ve been a “single mom”. Ever since I had a child, I’ve had a new-found respect or awe for single mothers. This week has only reinforced that feeling.

While certainly realizing how much my husband helps in the parenting of our daughter, conversely I realize how taxing it is to do it on your own! Take Saturday for example. After getting to bed around 11:00 the night before after celebrating my birthday, hubby was up and out the door by 4:00 a.m. Although I tried to go back to sleep, somehow my body knew that I was now the only responsible person in the house –and thus, I slept with one ear open toward the baby monitor. When 6:00 a.m. rolled around I figured I had better get up even though my body wanted nothing more than to sleep in (I knew I should have turned down the 3rd glass of Chardonnay). I knew that if I wanted to be able to so much as brush my teeth and use the restroom without a committee I’d better do it before my little one woke up.

By 7:00 Coco was up and ready to go. I had managed to at least get up, get my hair back in a pony tail and get my teeth brushed. I was however still in my PJs. The morning was a long blur of trying to get stuff done around the house while simultaneously trying to entertain and keep an eye on Coco. It seemed no matter what I had in mind, she was going a different direction. She wanted to play in the kitchen until I started to do the dishes – then she decided it was time to go pull ornaments off the Christmas tree. We played around the tree for a few minutes until she decided it was time to go pull all her books out of shelves in the living room. We hung out in the living room until she decided it would be fun to chase the cat through the house. And so on and so forth.

Finally, I decided that I had to balance the guilt of not getting anything done around the house with the guilt of needing to spend quality time with my daughter. I sat down and played “blocks” with Coco for 20 minutes. Then, I left her quietly playing with her toys to go do the dishes. Thinking back on it, I did see her come into the kitchen with me. I just figured she was pulling everything out of the utensil drawer as is her fav hobby whilst in the kitchen. That was until I heard the sound of a hundred Cheerios hitting the floor. I turned and this is what I saw:


But even as tired and frustrated as I was, you just cannot get mad at that face. And to her credit at least she was eating the Cheerios – not just being naughty by dumping them out. Soooo I got down on the floor and we both had some Cheerios (from the top of the pile thank you). After that, we scooped them up by handfuls (such fun) and put them back in the bag. We then walked the bag and box to the trash and threw them in. And on to the next thing... and the next thing… and the next.

All I know is that by 1:30 I was so glad it was naptime I could have sung hallelujah – but very quietly so as not to risk waking her!