Very bad, no good day!

This afternoon just about killed me.

Rachel took a half hour nap in the morning. When she woke up we ate lunch and got ready to go swimming. Then we walked to the pool. Rachel got a little impatient half way through our walk and started whining, but she relaxed after she noticed that we actually had a destination.

We swam for quite a long time today. The pool was more crowded than it was on Saturday mornings and she enjoyed watching all the kids throwing balls, splashing each other, and swimming around. She was a bit braver about the water, holding onto the edge of the pool and blowing bubbles all by herself, and doing back floats without me having to completely hug her. I just supported her head. She did a great job!

On the way home we walked by a little in-town farm and looked at some emus and horses, and a llama and a goat. Rachel liked that a lot.

I thought for sure Rachel would want a nap when we got home because she swam so hard, but instead she wanted to go outside to play. So I took her outside, hoping that she'd burn off any leftover energy and fall asleep.

Alas, she was intent on fighting off her droopy eyes. That meant that she was awake, and rather grumpy. She whined the entire afternoon.

So after a few hours I was going insane.

"Mom, look! I found the whisk!" Rachel brought an armload of kitchen utensils from our third drawer and dumped them on the living room floor. Then she took an armful of toys to replace them.

"Ouch! I just shoved it down my throat! Waaaa!"

"Alright, baby, don't do that then." I take the whisk away.

Rachel wandered into the kitchen and came out with another whisk.

"Look, Mom! I found another whisk! *GAG* I just shoved it down my throat! Waaa!"

Why do we even have two whisks?

"Mom, I want to go outside," Rachel whined as she headed towards the door. She tripped on the front mat. "Waaaaa!"

"Okay, that didn't even hurt. I think you need a nap."

"Put me down, Mom! Put me down!" SMACK! Rachel bumps her head against mine, "Waaaa!"

"Okay, that hurt. I still think you need a nap."

I tried rocking her but she was a little too squirmy so I put her down. She started walking away and tripped over a block.

"Waaaaa!"

"Okay! Let's go outside!" I ran over to the computer and IM'ed Andrew.

"What time are you coming home?"

"I'll leave at 4:30," he responded.

That meant he should be home by 5:00. I could survive that long.

Rachel and I tried to go outside, but the minute we left the house she pooped. So we headed back inside and had a terrific battle over a diaper change. By the time we had finished with that, it was 4:45. I checked to see if Andrew was still logged in. He was. I typed him a desperate message,

"Come home!"

And then Rachel and I went outside. We found some sprinklers to play in. Rachel was a little afraid at first because the wind picked up and sprayed her with cold water. Once she was wet, though, she was fine. She splashed around a bit, but soon got bored with the gentle fountain-type sprinkler. She spied a heavy duty sprinkler and wandered over to that. I stopped her before she got knocked over by its spray.


She was, of course, upset with me, so she screamed. And then she saw a scooter.

At first I tried to make her walk past it, but she put up a fight, so I let her play on it for a little while. We wheeled her around and she loved it...until she tipped over. Then she started screaming bloody murder.


Surprisingly, in the end the only way I could get her to calm down was to stick her back on the scooter.

A few minutes later Daddy came home! Hooray!

Rachel took another half hour nap. Mommy took an hour long nap! Daddy made dinner and cleaned the tub and did a lot of other things Mommy just didn't get done today. He has this amazing skill of being able to ignore Rachel and get things done.

At dinner we noticed that Rachel has a nice handlebar-shaped bruise on her cheek. That would be from the scooter. Oh, and I'm not sure that half hour nap of hers was worth it. It's 9:00 and she's still awake and she wasn't really less whiny when she woke up, anyway, but at least Andrew was home to be a big help!

I need to do something to unwind!