I'm telling this story for all of the stay-at-home, work-your-fanny-off Moms.
The other night my son was happily playing by himself with his cars while my husband and I each sat reading books. We were all in the same room and intermittently interacted with one another but for the most part we were all just having a relaxing evening passed as we each chose.
My husband looked up at me and asked, "So, is this what you do every day?"
In my head I said, "Excuse me? I think I just hallucinated...what did you ask me?"
Out loud I said, "Excuse me? I think I just hallucinated...what did you ask me?" Yeah, there was no stopping the immediate thought right then. It wasn't my most eloquent moment.
My husband had the sweetest smile on his face and he said once again, "Does he just play like this all day?"
This is where a Vulcan mind-meld would come in handy because the words I could find were so inadequate to the extreme that I just looked at him and said, "Uh...no."
This is the eternal question we find ourselves answering again and again, to our spouses, our friends, our family, our acquaintances, and if any of you are like me, to ourselves.
No I don't just sit on my tail reading all day while my son takes care of himself! That was the first time I've read between the hours of 7:00 AM and 9:00 PM for over two months!
I sit and play cars. I sit and do puzzles. I sit and color. I sit and play blocks. I sit and play legos. I sit and read books...HIS books. I take him to the potty and then sit in the bathroom and read his books again...and again and again. We wash the dishes together and put them away together. We do the laundry together and dust together. We cook together. We learn letters together and sing songs together. There are somewhere in the ballpark of 4,062 things he could do that he loves to do in this house but they are just no fun unless Mommy is doing them too.
This can't just be me, right? You find something your child loves and you feel a moment of intense liberation. "Now I will have at least twenty minutes to do something while he is happily playing!" Then the sweetest voice I know rings out like an alarm clock waking me from a blissfully relaxing dream.
"Mommy, color too...Mommy, paint too...Mommy, cars too...Mommy, uppy-days*...Mommy, moe-knees+...Mommy...snack...etc.,etc.,etc."
There is no going to the bathroom alone or eating alone or sitting alone or standing alone or cooking alone or cleaning alone or relaxing alone. There is Noble and Mommy, a dynamic duo.
There are times when this is frustrating, of course, because I was an individual for 30 years, able to do whatever I chose whenever I chose. However, the reward comes when my husband notices.
"You know, Elise, you're always saying hoe smart Noble is, but he learns everything from you. You're the reason he's learning so much."
You mean he's not teaching himself while I sit on my sofa curled up with a cup of coffee and a book?...huh. Who knew?
* uppy-days - Up (This is his interpretation of "The people on the bus go up and down." He learned them together and still uses the whole phrase for "up."
+moe-knees - "milkies" our family's covert name for nursing
