How We Spent a Rainy Day

Today it rained. And I mean rain, not just a shower here or there. It was pretty torrential, and as soon as I woke up this morning I knew we wouldn't be leaving the house.

Somehow, with that simple decision made, the day loomed ahead of me, and I just knew it was going to be a "bored" kind of day. (Of course there are tons of cleaning tasks I could have accomplished, as well as some things on the baby-to-do list that I could work on. But I knew that wouldn't happen today.)

Being "forced" to stay home all day just seems so much worse than choosing to do so. Whenever there's been a time where we've been out and about and busy for days on end, I crave time home. I relish every minute we spend in the house, and never lack for things to do. But when its weather, or sickness, or some other such calamity that keeps us in all day, I just want to rip my hair out!

Dan left for work at 8:45 this morning. Stephanie and I were already dressed, had make-up on (me, not her) and had eaten breakfast. As soon as he stepped out the door I had a "now what?" kind of moment.

I washed the breakfast dishes, and then at 9 put Curious George on TV. Stephanie was content to play with her toys and occasionally pause to watch a minute or two of George while I checked my email and caught up on some blog reading. At 9:45, the TV went off, and we read some books. (She is obsessed with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and after reading it about 350 times, I think I can recite it by heart.)

At 10, I was sick of reading books, couldn't believe it was only 10am, and decided it was snack-time. (Organic honey bunny crackers for Stephanie, Greek yogurt for me.) After snack, which sadly only lasted 15 minutes, I sat down to play with her. We did some coloring, had a picnic, and read some more books. (As I mentioned before, I knew the rainy day would make me completely unwilling to do any sort of cleaning. Which is really too bad, because there is so much I need to do.)

We played for what seemed like hours, and at 11:15 I decided to make Stephanie lunch, because she was getting restless. (And, quite frankly, so was I.)  Lunch lasted until 11:45, and then I cleaned up and washed the dishes. She then asked to go for a nap, so even though it was early I put her in. Once she was asleep, I made myself an omelette for lunch, ate it, and cleaned up. I was exhausted, so I spent the next hour resting, and as soon as I started to consider getting something done, she woke up. I knew she hadn't slept long enough, but I also knew that she hadn't really been fully tired, since she went down for a nap half an hour earlier than normal.

I got her up, changed her diaper, and gave her some milk. We played with toys for a little bit more, and then I gave her an afternoon snack. (Goldfish and craisins.) At that point, desperate for something different to do, I decided to make play-doh. I looked up a recipe online, made sure I had all the ingredients, and put it together. It was surprisingly easy to make. When it was cool, we sat at the table to play, and we both had a blast! It was a lot of fun to watch her discover the new texture, to squeeze it through her fingers, and try to roll it into balls like I did. I was proud of myself, because the process killed about an hour of the day, and when we were finished it was already 4:30. Time to think about dinner!

I started dinner, and Dan came home right at 5 for once. (He often gets caught up in meetings or conversations and will arrive anytime between 5:15 and 5:45. Annoying when you're trying to plan for dinner. But that's a story for another time.)

As soon as he walked in the door, I morphed into super cranky wife/mommy. I think it was the whole "forced to stay in, havn't seen another adult in 8 hours thing." I had zero tolerance for anything at that point. But we made it through dinner, clean-up, bathtime, and bedtime. Now it's 7:45 and I AM DONE. I want nothing more than to eat some chocolate, take a nice hot shower and go to bed. Thank goodness this never-ending day is finally coming to a close.

I hate rainy days.

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