Amanda's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 4/9/07 -------------------- 3/12/07 2/16/07 1/5/07 11/29/06 11/13/06 10/27/06 10/11/06 9/19/06 8/13/06 7/30/06 7/19/06 7/15/06 7/4/06 6/26/06 6/21/06 6/19/06 -------------------- Amanda's Introduction

Snotties!

Introduction

My poor little man has snot caterpillars crawling out of his nose. He prefers to wipe his nose on his hand rather than interrupt his play to find a tissue, so his cheeks end up red, raw, and crusty by the end of an hour. Instead of church for Easter yesterday I took him out to my dad's farm, where the chickens and horses care nothing about snot (and where my aunt's dogs would drool all over him and no one would be able to tell the difference).

Since it was the first Easter I had done myself (last year my sister had a big family gig), I went overboard with candy. We hid the eggs in the house due to the wacky cold weather, and he breakfasted on malted milk balls and pastel M & Ms. He was hyped up on sugar by the time we got to Grandpa's, and immediately caught my father up in his desire to play with my dad's remote controlled boats and ride on my father's tractor. Spoiled little monkey! It was a day off for me-- while Grandpa kept him busy, I got to lounge with my aunt and uncle and gossip. And, of course, I got to eat lots of ham and my aunt's delicious devilled eggs! Plus I could just watch him have fun, and listen to him tell me about how he and Grandpa were going to fix the orange boat so that it vrooms, and that the black boat needed batteries. There was no guilt about laundry that needed doing, or a schedule conflict with school. It was Easter. Spring. Time to relax and watch my son grow.

I put off leaving; I love the country. My husband's affinity for the city (and horrible whining on car trips longer than 20 minutes) keep us in the middle of town with neighbors two feet away on either side. Given my druthers, I'd rather live where I can't even see my neighbors, and where my dog could race around after bunny rabbits she'll never catch instead of barking at the neighbor kids who think it's fun to taunt her from the other side of the fence.

But I waited too long. He melted down when I told him we were going. After a long, painful struggle he was in the car-- and fell asleep before we hit the highway.

I wish I could have days like that every day. (Well, maybe not the snotty screaming part.) Instead I have to drop him off, crying, at the children's center, where he still doesn't talk to his teachers so they think he's a little behind (and they don't get his cues to go potty, so he has accidents about once a week). Or I have to pass him off to my husband so that I can go to class, or hide in my room and do classwork. I plug him into _SpongeBob_ so that I can do laundry, dishes, cat boxes, and make dinner without him wanting to "help"-- or being destructive so that he can get my attention.

And here I am stuck in my office while the sun shines outside and my son naps in his classroom thirty yards from where I wait for student meetings. I love my job, but if I didn't need it to pay the bills I would be skipping among the dandelions with my boy. Wouldn't you?

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