The new dishwasher is (at least) two weeks delayed beyond the initial late date, and that’s not the worst of it. Nothing tragic but plenty of things that, I suppose, count. It has been a lot. But how wouldn’t it be? Two very small children, no close family nearby. Things come up. You deal. Plus it is the start of the weather season here in Toronto, which ends, as I recall, in May. If I were a better writer I’d do a fiction of the mundane about this, with some choice thinly-veiled characters (remember #kidneygate?), but I am but a blogger, so anything like that lives in Word docs at best.
Am thinking, then, of the positives. And there are… some?
-It is extremely cute when the 3-year-old plays with the 3-month-old. It’s really a shame I am not more into parental overshare because these children, they are the supermodels of children, as well as delightful in non-superficial ways.
-I honest-to-goodness read a novel, like a person. Lydia Kiesling’s The Golden State. Maybe not so escapist (imagine having a baby after being in a literature PhD program, imagine such a thing) but compelling all the same.
-Defying everything in my personality and character and and overall state of with-it-ness on no sleep, and I think the expectations of all those around me, I - me! - was the parent who served as catalyst to organize a large-ish birthday party for toddlers. Because Covid, because Omicron (a parent I’d never met before started chatting with me about case counts), it was outdoors, in Toronto, in December, but it worked!
-A neighborhood mom has this incredible one-piece adult-sized snowsuit. I looked it up and it’s $900 but! I just ordered a similar-looking pants-only version (better suited to my lifestyle to be honest) for $60. (All prices in CAD unless otherwise specified, not that this matters.)
-I ignored some baby-screaming for long enough to clean the bathroom, which was overdue.
-I used the full capacity of my upper-body strength to assist my husband in a months-in-the-making room-rearranging project such that older daughter now has a fabulous big-girl bedroom (complete with giant Eiffel Tower decal).
-I have very possibly weaned myself off “Benidorm.” (The latest rewatch started arriving at the place where the Garveys leave, and no Mick, no Madge, no point.)
“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want”
Sylvia Plath
Correct - You Deal