Errands Envy

Stealing some time at the computer while Dean is bouncing up and down in his jumperoo and Henry is rediscovering his toys after spending the night at Bob's and Pampaw's.

It's been a quiet holiday weekend, mostly because Matthew and I have been sick with head colds. This afternoon we're going over to Chase and Tricia's for some barbeque (we seem to have established a tradition of getting together every government holiday) but that will be my fist outing since I took the boys to the pediatrician Friday afternoon. Boy was that fun -- they both had to get shots (I also got a flu shot) and Henry devolved into a caged animal. It was unlike anything I've ever seen, and I definitely wasn't prepared for it. Ultimately, reasoning and cajoling proved ineffective and the doc and I had to hold him down on the floor to get him immunized. It SU-U-UCKED. But surprisingly, he was perfectly understanding about the whole incident -- it's like his five year old brain could comprehend the fact that the government makes the rules that see he has to have these shots for school, but just couldn't manage to keep himself sitting in one place to endure it. He didn't seem to harbor any hard feelings at all toward me or the doctor about it. Matthew and I haven't decided whether or not to give him the H1N1 shot if it ever becomes available, but now at least I'll know to bring knee pads and other protective gear if it comes to that.

The doctor visit also confirmed that Henry has allergies. He's been coughing for more than 3 weeks now, but without any other symptoms. And he's long had an itchy nose. I just didn't want to medicate him for it unless it began interfering with his life, and recently the coughing has been so severe it;s keeping him up at night and we started to worry he would gag. Matthew has also had a revelation about the powers of allergy medications, having started taking Zyrtec and discovered his fatigue and malaise disappeared overnight. So Matthew, who I think would have been completely against medicating Henry for allergies just a few months ago, was overwhelmingly in favor of Henry taking Zyrtec as well. It's too soon to know if it is really helping, but we also put away most of his stuffed animals and washed all his bedclothes and vacuumed the nursery just for good measure.

In the world of Dean news, these days Dean has two things he loves to do while eating: pooping and talking with his mouth full. Lucky for him he's so cute.

Matthew and I have been talking lately about how cramped our lives feel right now, emotionally. Everything on paper is where it should be -- we have our two healthy boys, our careers are going well, finances are not the challenge they were for so much of our married lives, we love our house, our neighborhood, our city. Yet we still feel overwhelmed. We've concluded it's just the nature of parenting right now. There's certainly nothing amiss, and we very much appreciate all the good we have in our lives. But when 8:30 rolls around and both of the kids are finally in bed, we are just so exhausted, physically and mentally. And as good as the advice to "take some time for yourself each day" sounds, when you are the parents of two small children, there's no such thing as "free time." And time for yourself just doesn't feel as relaxing, as nourishing, when it's stolen. We steal it nonetheless -- a bath here and there, a half hour of reading for pleasure -- but the time doesn't have the same quality it did before we had kids. And we're okay with that -- as I reflected in an earlier post, we both know how brief this period of our lives (and our children's lives) will be. But when you envy your spouse for getting to go to the grocery store by himself -- well, you know you've left carefree days long behind.