Tonight J’s been singing to himself in his crib for two hours. When I went in to tell him to settle down a half hour ago, I told him that he needed to settle down and go to sleep so that he would be awake early enough to go on tomorrow’s playdate with his friends.  Then, I told him I loved him and asked him if he loved me.

“I doooo,” he answered.

I know I shouldn’t be suprised, but he doesn’t talk to me often.  He jabbers, he repeats words, he screams.  Once in a while, though, he says something outside of his normal pattern that it just catches me off guard, like his affirmation of his love for me.

Ahhhh. I’m in love all over again.

Do you ever find yourself staying up insanely late just because you can do so without a child tugging at your pant leg, saying, “Outside! Shoes! Outside!”

I do.

I think we should start a support group.

Really, the sleeping pattern is mostly because I can without terrible repercussions and because if I don’t stay up now, I won’t get any Etsying done, which is my goal for the summer–Etsy until I drop…or build up a big enough product and customer base that I don’t have to be doing this promotion thing as heavily during the school year. 

It’s exhausting.  I tell ya.  Maybe ALMOST as exhausting as the boy. (Who I love with all my heart, so he can keep on tugging on my pants leg and begging me to go discover butterflies, anthills and pine cones.)

J and Cousin E dragged their mothers (that’s me and my sis, yes-sirree) to the Dells on Thursday.  Normally, I’d avoid it in the summer–I’m not into crowds.  Unfortunately for the tourism industry down there, the flooding we had a few weeks ago that ended up draining Lake Delton scared the normal tourists away.  I hate to say this, but it has really worked to my favor because the hotels are seriously discounting their rooms.

May I tell you how much?

On Thursday, we got a whirlpool suite with two queens, a king and a sofa sleeper (plus THREE TVs) at The Atlantis for $110/night.  Weekends were about the same. 

Then, because the real tourists (I don’t really count considering it’s only an hour away) weren’t out in full force, so traffic was good, the kids had their run of the kiddie water slides and pools, and we hardly waited in line for anything…

…including the Ducks.  If you haven’t heard of them, they’re the amphibian vehicles that run through the trails and down the river a bit.  They’re pretty cool; especially since there are some really pretty sandstone formations on the river and in the woods.  They can’t go on Lake Delton right now, obviously, but they did take us up to the road that was washed out when the lake drained and we did drive past the house that’s still sitting at the edge the the lake, ripped in half.  I recommend the Original Wisconsin Ducks, if you happen to go.  It was a really nice thing to do after some toddler-sized screaming fits at the outlet mall and meltdowns at lunch.  Really.  Very calming.  For us ALL.

But if you go…take bug spray.  J and I didn’t get bitten, but Cousin E had a few mosquito bites.

The next day we went to Circus World, the historic site at the former winter home of the Ringling Bros. Circus.  It’s a place for kids, most definitely, and they’ve got something going on all the time.  We saw an instrument demonstration that the kids enjoyed and went to the Kids Circus (kids from the audience volunteer to be lions, horses, clowns and even the ringmaster).  J enjoyed himself and clapped at all the appropriate places.  They’ve got a circus performance or two every day…which we missed because we were avoiding the rain in the very nicely priced general store. 

Overall, it really was very nice, something I didn’t expect–especially for a mini-vacation planned only two days before we left.  Sometimes spontaneity actually works out!

(a social life that was, admittedly, boring as hell, a state I kind of liked.)

I don’t know what happened.  Sure, I’ve got a couple of play dates under my belt.  And then, there’s the mini-vacation we took with my sister and niece last week.  Oh, and increased visits with cousins.  And grandmas and grandpas…should I keep going?

Nah.  There’s not much else to list…for me, the above is A LOT in only two weeks’ time.

I’m beginning to understand why toddlers need mid-day naps. 

Either I’ve been delusional and those grey hairs aren’t coming in too early or there’s something about shopping with a toddler that brings on a fatigue unmatched by any college-era, there-’til-closing night at the bars.

J, Little Sis, Cousin T and I went to Wisconsin Dells to pay homage to the outlet mall, and instead of being excited about all my purchases at the end of the day, I was drained, and I only had six ramikins, five pairs of underwear, four Oshkosh-emblazoned items, two baking sheets and one squiggly, wiggly child to show for it.  A squiggly, wiggly child that spilled milk all over his lap, chanted “NO!” loudly at the family seated to our left and spent all of the leftover time at Denny’s trying to get out of the booster seat and screeching over Cousin T’s touys. A squiggly, wiggly child that only got 45 minutes of good naptime on the drive back and STILL rattled the bars of his crib-jail until 9 p.m.

Now, I’m so overtired I can’t sleep.  I’m calling it a shopping hangover.  I’m ignoring the fact that I could just be getting old.

Tags: hangover, shoppping, toddler

I’ve been happily occupied–working, taking care of the J man and, as the title suggests, going on a playdate.

I have to confess: after I complained about it here ad nauseum,  J was invited for a weekly date by our neighbor/sitter AND for another date with the son of a colleague.  That last one won’t start yet, but we’ll be in contact in a few weeks.  Yay!  Today was the first, and although my face is burned and J consumed at least a cup of sand (must watch for worms in stool, yech), it was wonderful.

J was tired, T got some alone time and I got a nap after I put J in bed for his afternoon nap.  I even talked T into putting the piece of tin that was torn off the shed’s roof this winter back in place.  It’s, like, perfect.

AND I sold another bunch of announcements, designed another announcement template and TOOK pictures…just in time for the Thursday Theme: Childhood.

Tags: announcements, photo announcements, photography, playdate, toddler

You know what just isn’t right?  I was in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area today, spent a few hours in a condo party room and then turned around.  Typical.  Even though we don’t really get to real cities very often, when we do, we don’t do more than sit around a nursing home, hang out at in a party room and lounge around T’s parents’ kitchen table.

I can’t even say it isn’t my fault.  I suppose if I really wanted to, a while back I would have demanded that things change and we’d be doing something different–but I didn’t.  Beside, today I was exhausted, a harried-looking mama chasing after her child.  We wore matching under-eye circles. I barely cared that I’ve been delegated to the toddler patrol.

My dark circles were earned after heating up the telephone lines late into the night last night, an activity I haven’t had much occasion to do since T moved in with me. (Back in the day, I was pleased when my phone bill was under $200 and was ecstatic when I found ICQ–a way to talk to T without racking up the minutes.)

J’s circles cropped up after he woke at 6 and didn’t take a nap before the party started at 1.  In fact, he didn’t nap until after we left (mostly due to a meltdown over a toy at about 3:30).

I feel a little sorry for T this Father’s Day.  He was stuck with two grumps, a long drive and no quality time with his video game.  At least we’re back home early and relaxing as the cool breezes ease themselves through the room–not such a bad end to a pretty hectic day.