The alarm went off. I hopped out of bed, already planning out the daily logistics of getting myself and our 11-month-old ready and out the door, off to daycare and work. Moments later, I got a text from the daycare saying it was closed for the weather. I peeked out the blinds, saw a few snowflakes and shrugged. I didn't think it was that bad, but who knows? I patiently waited for the text from the University saying that campus was closed as well. I never got it.
I'm a first-time mom, and I take it for granted that my child is pretty good at entertaining herself. I emailed my office to let them know that I would be working from home and assumed it wouldn't be that difficult. I was wrong. It turns out, I wasn't the only person who didn't want to be at home that day.
She woke up fussy. Feeding her didn't help. Every time I came near her, she cried. In the moments that she was happy, the dog was busy chewing something that didn't belong to him. By 8:30 that morning, I had to change shirts twice because of spit-up. She insisted on holding the instructions for assembling a bed frame while I tried to guess where the parts went. If you sleep on that bed this weekend, beware.
I have been trying to train her to take one long afternoon nap each day in lieu of both a morning and afternoon nap. That day, I burned a hole in the clock until it was her morning nap and marched her upstairs to the crib. Instead of keeping it to her normal hour, I decided to let her sleep as long as she wanted. 1.5 hours in, I suddenly remember that FedEx is supposed to deliver a package. As I contemplate when the delivery should occur, the dog starts howling. FedEx was on the front porch. Cue the baby crying. Sigh.
I managed to make it another 1.5 hours before I laid her down for another nap. She slept pretty hard - it must be exhausting to be that mad at your parent all day. After her nap, I took her to the grocery store assuming she would be misbehave there as well.
She was a total angel. She smiled at the other customers. She held their hands. She acted adorably bashful at times. She reached for me. She waved to people. She offered her toys to complete strangers. I really didn't want to leave the grocery store out of fear that there was a magic spell within that store.
I needed that. I needed to be reminded that she is an angel 90% of the time. The other 10% - she is still learning, still growing, still trying to communicate in her own way that I don't understand yet. That short trip to the grocery store was like a do-over. We were friends again. I didn't even mind it when JD closed the garage door on my car when I got home. Our little girl was happy again and that's all I cared about.
And, I never want to work from home again.
