That’s some good parenting, right there.

[brigid]

Yesterday, everything was just kind of off except for Niko’s nap which was actually a good one (although he was restless and kept crying out– and even crying– while sleeping. Poor kiddo.)

The epitome of out-of-synch-ness was when I was on-line checking email really quickly (I’m expecting an email) and I heard faint rustling that I did not investigate. FOOL! Soon after that I heard an ominous quiet. You know that clichéd line “it’s quiet…. TOO QUIET”? Well, sometimes it’s true that a sudden silence has a thick and ominous presence to it. Birds stop singing in the trees. Dogs are too afraid to bark. The house stops settling. The people upstairs pick up the cd player that’s been playing the same song on repeat for the past five days and flick it off, to better hear the approaching doom. Everything was quiet. And then I heard a cheerful “yeeeeAAAHHHH!” and I knew I had to investigate.

Niko had gotten hold of a bag of goldfish crackers that I swear to GOD I had put up very high out of his reach, dumped them on the living room floor, and was stomping his feet up and down on them as though he were marching in place, grinding them into the carpet. And entire package. Like he was trying to make wine out of them. A fine, dry, cheddary wine.

Q: Why would you do that?

A: Because I’m a toddler!

I made several stabs at cleaning up the living room, but each time I did something Niko undid it. A lot of it was excited “OH HEY I FORGOT I HAD THIS TOY/BOOK MUST INVESTIGATE” fun times, some of it was just good-natured dumping stuff back on the floor fun. He did pick up something like 45% of this wooden train stuff on his own and put it in a bin, which is a plus.

Yesterday, at nap time, Niko was so tired he threw a tantrum about being tired… while lying in bed, ready for a nap. That’s some tiredness right there.

Sometimes the little stuff threatens to overwhelm me. Like, on the one hand, it’s just a packet of goldfish. On the other hand, was I being neglectful? He had enough time to go into the kitchen, grab them, go into the living room, dump them, and start grinding away. What if it had been a knife? And then there’s the fact that money’s been really incredibly tight lately because he was an unexpected car emergency that needed to be fixed right away (as opposed to the car emergencies that need to be fixed, but we can put them off for a bit) that took an unexpected chunk out of our income and now grocery money is tight… tight enough that dumping $5 worth of food on the floor and grinding it into dust kind of hurts. I mean, we haven’t been buying bread lately because it’s about $5 a loaf, and I can make (mediocre) bread for so much cheaper with ingredients I already have on hand, so… yeah. I know this situation won’t last forever, but there’s a higher level of frustration with food waste right now than there normally is.

Then other times with Niko are super great. Most of the times with him are super great. The other night, Nesko and I sat on the couch and Niko rocketed between us for hugs and cuddles, dashing between the two of us to beep our noses while saying “ONK! ONNNNNK!” And it all evens out, you know?

But seriously. An entire packet of gold fish crackers.

Glad I didn’t get the enormous jumbo box.

Mirrored from Now Showing!.