Sunday, January 6, 2008

I will not be so lazy/How to take a nap

So I actually made a New Year's Resolution this year. I never have before, but this seemed like a ripe opportunity for a resolution when I had a light-bulb moment the other night here in my little old-staircase desk. So first, the moment:
My desk is built into our old staircase that is closed off at the top. I sit on the landing (2 steps up) and then Greg built me a desk that is on the third step above that (so it extends over 3 full steps). Over my desk are about 6 more steps where I can store stationary, pens, hole punchers, old photo albums, old journals, you name it. The stuff that doesn't have a spot goes here. So on the desk is a basket, a nice, crunchy, old basket full of pencils and pens. On this night I need a pencil. I am rifling through the basket, pulling up pencil after pencil that reads, "Buckle up, kids in back" and each one is unsharpened. I waste about 3 full minutes trying in vain to find a sharpened pencil. 2 steps above my desk, just out of reach, sits a pencil sharpener. I continue to look through the basket, trying to find one that is already sharpened.
Now imagine for a moment that upon drawing out the very first unsharpened pencil, I had pulled it out, stood up, picked up the pencil sharpener, and sharpened it. Then the whole affair would have been over in about 1 minute. Instead I had to confirm, while sitting on my ass, that each and every pencil was, indeed, unsharpened before standing up to get it.
This is kind of how I tend to do stuff.
AND I QUIT.
So this is my New Year's Resolution: I will not be so lazy. I have posted it here and now it is official. The subtitles of my New Year's Resolutions are: I will either fold or throw in the basket each article of clothing I remove from my body; and I will dry and put away each dish that I wash. We'll see how it goes. I am 6/6 for good days keeping up with my resolution.
The next article of minor obsession. Thinking about weaning? Maybe not. I don't want to wean my baby. She is so cute. I say to her the other day, "Aoife, what's your favorite thing to do?" She smiles and leans in. "Nursies", she says. Oh, so cute. I think, could I actually ever do it? I mean ever? But I really think that maybe if I could detatch her from the nurse/sleep cycle I wouldn't be so frustrated with her around sleeping. Today at my Mom and Dad's house I WALKED in teeny-tiny circles around the dark bedroom, singing, with her nursing in my arms for about 25 minutes to get her to take a nap. HOLY SHIT? This is too much. She is almost 2 and she is BIG. It is tiring to do this. I am also kind of bouncing up and down, and trying to hold her bottom arm so it doesn't fall and flop and startle her from her sleepy-place. Then she will kind of start to fall asleep, and then think of something that she wants to tell me. "We at Nana's house, we be in guest room. Over there (which sounds like "ova deah") is rocking chair. Aoife rocking chair broked". Yeah, honey. Time to go to sleep. Begin walking again, slightly more bouncily. Is this not a little ridiculous? I mean it is just one of those moments where I look at my child and I think, there is just absolutely no question whatsoever who the boss is in this relationship, and right now it isn't me. I really think that it is relatively reasonable to ask someone of this great age to just lie down when she is tired and take a nap. Lots of kids do this. I have seen them do it. So I guess what I am considering is maybe ceasing to nurse her just before bedtime and naptime. Then she might not sit in her bed dreaming of nursies and instead she might curl up with her cheezy princess doll and fall asleep.
OOHHHHH. But this is the coziest time to nurse, before bed! What is a mother to do?

1 comment:

Aunt Becky said...

I also am planning to try and be less lazy in the New Year, get off my butt, and genuinely do the things I want to do.

Good luck with your resolutions.