On your mark, get set, go

Ladybug just went down for her only nap of the day. That means I have about two hours to pick up the toys scattered throughout the living room, clean up the kitchen from breakfast, fold the clean clothes heaped on top on my dining room table, wash another load, scoop the cats' litter, sweep and swiffer the floors, take out the trash and down about a half dozen cups of coffee to give me enough umph to get me through the afternoon. When did daily life get so busy?

When Ladybug spent her first months going from tummy time to the Exercauser to the bouncer and back again and communicated all her needs through very loud and constant cries, I thought toddlerhood would be so much easier. I’d get to sleep through the night, Ladybug would be able to entertain herself and my house might actually get cleaned.

All of that is true to some extent, but it never happens all at the same time. Ladybug plays by herself in 20-minute spurts then tugs on me to join her. I’ll get the kitchen cleaned but every other room in the house will be messy. And getting a full night’s sleep – yes, I get those but I need them after an exhausting day of running behind Ladybug and making the most of the downtime I have from her morning nap.

Sometimes I look back on those early days when Ladybug couldn’t walk and wonder how I could have thought her self-sufficiency would mean less work. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. When you haven’t experienced a toddler emptying a roll of toilet paper before running off to do the same to your kitchen cabinets, the constant doting a newborn needs seems fatiguing.

I wish I had a time machine and could go back to those early months in Ladybug’s life and watch myself in action. Now that I’ve experienced toddlerhood and have learned a thing or two about time management, what would I do differently?

There’s no time to think about that now. I have an hour before Ladybug wakes up, and the dishes are calling.

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