Mommy Camp

I have a new respect for Stay At Home Moms. I've been doing it for a almost two weeks now and I'm completely wiped. Completely.

I love my kids, I really do, but this Mommy Camp could use a new director. We've gone on trips the few times I managed to get us all out of the house marginally clean, we've colored chalk on all the pavement within a 10 mile radius, we've blown enough bubbles to soap up all the chalk, and I'm pretty sure all of us have ingested at least a minimal amount of Play-Doh (I have a love/hate relationship with the creator of Play-Doh by the way, but that's for another time.)

I'm tired. We eat, we play, we go out, we come back, we eat, we shlep, we fight, we cry, we eat, we sing, we Facetime everyone we know. And then we look at the clock and it's only 3:00pm. How?

So I've become a little lax with my Rules of This House (yes, that was euphemism in the motherliest of ways). But I can't actually tell them that I give up on my rules, so I have become a master at ignoring things. Here are some rules I no longer enforce:

Only One Person In This House Can Cry At One Time
Don't Eat Off The Floor
Don't Drag Your Blankee Around The House
Don't Swing On The Crib Rail
Don't Drink From The Bathroom Sink (don't judge me; I really tried to keep to this one. The other day Chaya asked me for a drink of water and I sent her to first wash her hands. When she returned, I offered her the cup of water that I had prepared and she looked at me like I had grown a second head. "I already drank, Mommy, from the WATER FOUNTAIN." It took me a few minutes to understand. On account of we don't have a water fountain. On account of we just have a bathroom sink. But I guess it's better than the toilet. Right?)

Every morning Chaya wakes up and asks me, "Is it school TODAY, Mommy?"

And every morning I want to tell her that I feel the same way. That I'm also counting down. That I really don't know what I'm going to do with her. But somehow I always end up telling her that it's going to be another fun day with Mommy and that we are going to have an absolute blast. And the crazy thing is that as I say it I realize I'm not lying (not completely). There really IS something special about spending the day with them. I only wish I could figure out how to make that special feeling last all day.

And how to wake it when she cuts her skirt.

And then her hair.

Both shockingly, "an accident and I won't ever, ever, ever do it again!"

Until then the countdown remains:

Four. More. Days.