04/28/2007

Phew!

Sitting, at last! It has been a full day of activity. It hasn't been a tremendously fun day, but a lot was accomplished. I requested last night that Nick take Nathan out for a while this morning so I could have a break and work around the house. We have found this to be the best solution for house cleaning. One or the other of us needs to leave and go FAR away with Nathan so that progress can be made without the 'two steps forward/one step back' that inevitably occurs in his presence. Todays activities included:

-Painting the name 'USS Nathan' on the boat so that we can mark that project off our to-do list and can put away the paint.

-Vacuuming in Nathan's room and the front room.

-Gathering all of Nathan's belongings and returning them to their rightful locations...you know, where they were before he ran off with them.

-Unloading the dishwasher and reloading it with dishes needing to be washed.

-Laundry...in particular, our duvet cover and some of the busy toddler's clothes (which always need a little pre-laundry TLC due to the sorry condition in which they are removed from his body).

-Preparing something for tomorrow's lunch. Sundays tend to feel a little too rushed if I try and make a meal after we get home from church. Tomorrow's menu: Cheesy Potato Soup! Yum!

-Finding some way to organize all my cookbooks/food magazines. I can't throw them away because I LOVE them, but needed a system. The recipes were taking over our lives.

I would say that maybe half of today's chores were accomplished while Nathan was gone. The other half I worked on after he got home. So, now, all of the above tasks are finished, but thanks to all the 'help' that Nathan provided, the following is now true:

-A plunger is adorning the middle of the living room floor. A lovely touch.

-SpaghettiO's have been caked onto Nathan's high chair. (On an up-note, they have been removed from his face and body!)

-The contents of my purse are littering our foyer.

-The dogs have consumed half a box of chocolate cookies which they were hand fed...it wasn't me!

-All the paper has been pulled out of the printer and most of it carefully crinkled and used to give our office the appearance of fresh snowfall.

I sit back and take in all that has been accomplished today. Some of the progress, it seems, was made by me. Most of it, however, was made by my son. Is time an illusion? Is it possible that Nathan actually has 48 hours in a day? Do you think he could be hiding an additional arm or two where I can't find them? Does he have invisible accomplices? I have no idea how this happens. Sure, I keep checking things off the to-do list, but at the end of the day the grand total always goes up! One step forward, two steps back, and on and on it goes. Someday we may throw up our hands in surrender to the busy toddler and allow him to keep the place as he pleases. But, until that day, if anyone needs me, I'll be scraping the SpaghettiO's off the high chair.