While Josh lives it up in Chicago with med school friends (wedding), I am with Elena in our swampified cool home (the repair guy accidentally switched plugs, but now all is right in the world). Next weekend is MINE. I am planning yoga, pedicure, and maybe even a half glass of wine--all unbeknownst to Josh, of course.
We had a busy day yesterday of early park time with Maya and GiGi, followed by a bunk trip to pick up the $1300 of breastfeeding supplies I bought for the clinic, and a nice nap. Lunch meeting with my two intern advisees followed by her school's end of the year show, then to TJ's to get salad fixings to bring to Patricia's for dinner. Phew!
The end of the year show was something else. I love Elena's school and teachers. Let me just say that before I search frantically for a way to sound non-judgemental, or at least not so frankly non-judegemental. One of the... more prominent figures? at the school is... someone I wouldn't expect to have dedicated their life to Montessori education based on appearances. Now, appearances are just that, and so I'm trying to be open. But I also know that this figure of the school is intimately involved with the choreography for a bulk of the show. Holy crap. The sound track to the show was... really bad. Not so much the "celebrate the world" numbers that each classroom did, but more the intro and repeated interlude song choices. Even using Daft Punk's Around the World was a little odd to me for an infant through 3rd grade show... The interlude song really made everyone want to stab their ear drums repeatedly with sharpened pencils--if you haven't heard ATC's All Around the World, listen on the link, and then imagine hearing it like ten times as the "set" changes at your toddler's school's show.
I didn't bring Elena to the show last year--she was in the infant classroom then, and I thought there really wouldn't be much point. But she's been singing her little butt off to and from school, and practicing her jumping at home, so I thought we'd give it a try. As I handed her over to a stranger (the school has two locations--none of the eastsiders were manning the kid drop off point), she looked at me with panic in her little eyes and started to cry, "I want my mommy!" I felt bad about that, even though that has become a common refrain in our household. And then once the show started and that awful music started blaring, I had to ask myself why the hell I had brought her to this piece of crap show. I started to get teary myself, and was thankful I was in the back row with a buffer of empty seats next to me with the lights dimmed.
Elena's number was showing off how they can walk on a balance beam, go up and down stairs, and then jump over a pole. I have every second of it on film, in case you want to see. Really thrilling stuff, which further made me feel a bit guilty for bringing her since half the time she was just staring at the audience with a deer in headlights look on her face.
That was early in the show--then I had to sit through all of the older kids, which was rough. I kept looking to the front rows that were reserved for the kids who had done their thing already, and couldn't find Elena--I think she was on the opposite side of one of her teachers and so I had trouble seeing her. And then she left her seat and started her jumping and dancing, and I softened. I also busted out the video camera again. It was so cute to see her and her friends cutting loose. So what if Turner pushed her a couple of times--she was trying to hug him. The last number was a parent-participation freeze-dance, and she was so happy when I came and got her to dance. So all in all, the stupid show was a success.
Today we ventured out with the dogs to the dog park. For the record, taking a toddler and two dogs to the dog park is just as challenging as doing it with a newborn. Poor dogs. They'll never get any action until they're too old to participate. Elena, Neko, and I had pool time while Isaac hydrated and passed out on the tile, and now the bug is sleeping.
Which brings me finally to my subject. Since we converted our guest room to Elena's room, we lost our clean laundry pile storage. We stink at laundry folding. The first few loads were easy, and I questioned why the task of folding laundry had ever defeated me in the past. And here we are, Josh having worked three weeks in a row only to fly off to Chicago, me 37+ weeks pregnant and recovering from getting in extra clinics in June before the new academic year July 1st, and then getting in as much clinical time before maternity leave. And my Chica (I think her mom retired?) got cancelled because of the swamp cooler last week and is on vacation next week. That is why our kitchen table has become our new laundry storage spot. It's a nice height for folding and so conspicuous that I thought it might lend itself well to getting the laundry folded, but alas, now we have a mountain in our eating space.
Ugh. At least I'm washing the diapers... One school load had sat outside for the two weeks we weren't living at home--yay pregnancy for getting me out of processing those! Bug is up. Time to entertain. Glad I have the YouTube link for All Around the World...
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