Exhaustion

I am beyond tired right now, I'm not even joking. I want more than anything to be under the covers, watching Friends reruns on Nick at Nite and obsessively checking Facebook. (Which is even funnier when you consider that I'm sitting at my PC right now, blogging and checking Facebook.)

It was a better day today than yesterday. I am not sure how, but I am more physically exhausted since the kids started school. I thought, mistakenly, that I would have more free time with them in school. Unfortunately, that's not really been the case at all.

The problem is I've sent to school the two older kids and have kept the 2-year-old. And therein lies the rub. If you're not a parent to a 2-year-old (or it's been more than a few years since you've had one around), I will try to describe how Doug operates. Keep in mind that he is only talking minimally, so I'm spending a lot of time coaxing and encouraging him to use sign language where appropriate. Meanwhile, it's really like chasing a pinball around.

Doug is not interested in any one activity/item for more than a few seconds at a time. He doesn't want to sit down and color. Rather, he would like to take the crayon, walk over to my walls and start coloring there. A few strokes on one wall, a few strokes on another, maybe some on the kids Step 2 table for good measure. My pots and pans haven't lived in my cabinet for more than 2 days at a time. The lids and pots are in various locations around downstairs. Clean laundry gets tossed out of the basket, dirty laundry never makes it to the laundry room. He drinks out of sippy cups and those get deposited in random locations (most recently the air vents) and left for various periods of time.

If I take Doug someplace outside the home, forget trying to have an adult conversation with anyone. I am lucky if I get to stand in one place for more than a few minutes. I can't take him (uncontained) into any place that has breakable items. I can't really let him walk in public places because if I attempt to hold his hand, he throws a tantrum and then has to be carried. For someone who was once classified as Failure to Thrive, he's a hefty boy. I can't carry him and complete any tasks. If I'm holding on to him, nothing else is getting done and I have to leave said location before the big meltdown happens.

If we're at home, I must have a line of sight on Doug at all times. Even today, I turned my back for a few minutes to work on a batch of bread. I saw him climb onto the Step 2 table (a frequent occurrence). When I turned back around, he had pulled out the drawer in our entertainment center that holds movies (the top drawer) and was standing on top of that. I'm not worried about the TV falling on him but I am worried that the drawer will give out, spilling both Doug and the movies all over the floor.

Doug is a crafty boy. If I've left the door to the powder room open, I will sooner rather than later either hear the splish splash of his hand in the toilet or see him emerge from the bathroom with the plunger in his hand. If I forget to fasten the child lock on the cabinet with my Corningware in it, I will soon hear the clank of glass on glass as he rearranges the contents of the cabinet. If I don't lock the recycle bin, I will find him curiously removing and examining the contents. If I've forgotten to put the gate up at the bottom of the stairs, I will soon hear things clanking around upstairs.

In short, having lost my junior supervisors to school, I am now realizing how active my 2-year-old is. When they are around, he is more likely to play with toys, he is more likely to be found out sooner, he is less likely to get away with as much. I am expending a crazy amount of energy just trying to follow my little human pinball around. It's probably why I'm losing weight so effectively--not only am I doing my 1-hour (sometimes plus) work-outs, I'm spending the remainder of my time in constant motion keeping up with him.

Luckily, (and honestly I think by design), Doug is incredibly cute. He is talking more and more every day and has taken to saying things I say to him all the time like "hi-ya," which is what I say when I pick him up unexpectedly, "whoa," when he sees something cool, "wook," when he is pointing to something, and "mamama," when someone redirects him. He gives open-mouthed, drooly kisses. He loves to snuggle into me when I pick him up from naps. He gets jealous if I'm loving on his brother or sister. He roars like a dinosaur for almost every animal. He tries to wipe up after himself if he's spilled something (as he did when he knocked over my glass of iced tea after climbing--unnoticed--onto our dining room table).

Now excuse me while I try to rest up for tomorrow's round of human pinball.