S. is out of town for a couple days, which leaves the house to just M. and I. While I already had great respect for housewives (and househusbands), that respect has increased immensely over the past 24 hours. M.’s in a bit of a clingy phase, making it tough to put her into her crib, swing, bouncy seat, or really anything and have 10-15 minutes to accomplish things. Unlike S., I apparently don’t have the gene that allows for carrying out regular activities while holding a baby. It’s a bit frustrating to realize I have to plan when I go to the bathroom, when I eat, and so on. M. did pass out in her swing briefly last night, and I was literally running through the house to get all the trash collected and to the curb before she woke.
I’ve done this on a smaller scale when S. works, but I always had the crutch of her showing up at about 8:20 after her shift ended. I could hand off M. and drink coffee, read the paper, come work on the computer, or go grab a nap. I do have some sister-in-law babysitting help this afternoon and tomorrow, but my hopes of not letting dishes pile up, studying, or even just doing some laundry is pretty much dependent on M. being able to take a nap some place other than in my arms. If I would have planned better, I could have trained her to figure out the whole opposable thumb thing by now so she could at least entertain herself with toys. There is always the bright side, though. I watched almost 12 straight hours of sports on the Fox network yesterday. I managed to completely avoid ads the other night in protest of the two LCS games being on at the same time. Unfortunately, I think I more than made up for that protest yesterday. First pitch is only 20 minutes away!