Is It Over Yet?

Some days everything just goes my way. Lilly eats good, healthy meals; makes it to the potty on time every time; we have fun, productive playtime together and just plain enjoy each other’s company. Those are good days. Today is not one of those days.

To start with, I woke up at 4:15 a.m., which seems to be my body’s cruel way of sleep-training me for no sleep with a newborn. I was just about back to sleep by 5:30 a.m., when Lilly woke up crying. Same at 6:30 a.m. Same at 7:30 a.m. At that point, I agreed to let her get up and gave myself a free pass on morning play. Instead I planted Lilly in front of PBS Kids for an hour and a half while I slept on the couch.

When I woke up I was feeling better and hoped to pick up where we normally begin our day. It seemed, however, that Lilly was feeling particularly 3 years old today and everything I tried to do was met with resistance. This is often the case immediately following a visit from family when Lilly returns to the reality of not having a multi-person audience for days on end. And since my parents and two of her cousins just left yesterday after a several day visit, I tried to be patient. I admit I was not always successful.

Recognizing that Lilly was most likely just bored after having a house full of people for the last few days, I thought it would be a good day to get out and keep busy. But each time I asked her what she wanted to do the only thing she would say is “Nothing! I don’t want to do ANYTHING!” [Be sure to read that with your snottiest preschooler attitude.]

So I set my expectations low: we’d get to the library to return some books that were due yesterday. Surely, we could accomplish that. And then we’d have more books to spend some more time this afternoon.

After two hours of following Lilly around trying to get her to eat or get dressed or on the potty or clean up the numerous toys I tripped over in the process with basically zero success, I’d pretty much had it. I walked out of the room for a few minutes to give myself some time to cool off only to be summoned back by Lilly calling, “Mommy, I leaked!”

Obviously I was not thrilled with this develop but accidents happen and I don’t hold it against Lilly. After all, she’s only been potty trained for a few weeks. But when I walked into the room and saw her head poking out from behind our armoire — Lilly’s favorite stow away and poop corner — I became suspicious. After some gentle questioning, it became clear this was no accident, but rather a conscious decision to forego the potty. Needless to say, I was not consulted in this decision-making process.

At least now I can get her out of her pajamas, I thought.

Unfortunately, ridding Lilly of her pajamas is only one of several steps to getting out of the house and we were nowhere near through them all when it was nearly lunchtime. The morning climaxed with me demanding that she listen to me “at least once today” and Lilly hitting me in the face. Oh and did I mention that I have an awful kind of zit this week right on my lip line that makes the whole left half of my face throb? (Thanks pregnancy hormones!) So that 3-year-old slap was not what I needed. Timeout was instituted — for both of our sakes.

Then things seemed to turn around. I vented on facebook about the long day I was likely to have ahead of me, and a friend graciously offered her backyard, fully equipped with trampolines and playset, to help everyone pass the time. It seemed the perfect solution: Lilly could run around with another 3 year-old until nap time. I could wind down with another mom. Just what we needed.

Off we went for our playdate, library books in tow, which I very strategically intended to drop off on our way home to give Lilly a longer return trip during which she could fall asleep. About a quarter of the way to our friends’ house Lilly announced she needed a potty. Inconvenient, yes. But at least she told me. So we made a quick stop at the grocery store we were passing so she could take a pee break. And off we went again.

Long and rather disgusting story short, almost immediately after we arrived, Lilly’s diarrhea returned with a vengeance. By about twenty minutes into our playdate, Lilly had had 3 episodes; I was out of supplies and was quickly burning through my friend’s supplies; Lilly was suffering from stomach cramps but crying with disappointment that she wouldn’t get any trampoline or sandbox time in; and my friend’s house was graced with a new, rather unpleasant, odor. It was a mess. Literally and figuratively.

So here we are. Lilly is once again engrossed in TV — seemingly the only cure for her stomach aches. I’m preoccupied with my laptop. There does not seem to be a nap in Lilly’s future – or mine. I just had to cancel what would have been the first night of babysitting with our new babysitter. Our library books will be accruing another day of late fees. I have a pile of poop-encrusted laundry to do. And, now that the Tangled credits are rolling, I have to start trying to convince Lilly that a bath is a good idea. It should only be another hour or 2 before she’s ready to acquiesce.

Some days just surviving is good enough.

The Is It Over Yet? by MushBrain, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at mushbrain.net.