It's been a bad day for Mummy skills. Really, if anybody was this rubbish at a conventional job, they'd be sacked. Fortunately Mummies are very rarely sacked (though the downside of this is that they are also unable to quit).
The Rev is away on potty training (that's Post Ordination Training, to the uninitiated) so this goes to show how much I generally rely on him as back-up parent even when I'm 'taking care of Abigail' and he's 'at work'. One of the things we struggle with as a family is how difficult it is to keep these two job descriptions distinct when it all takes place under the same roof.
For a start, this morning I put the television on so that I could get dressed, and allowed Abigail to watch Waybuloo, a programme I disagree with on every level including educational, spiritual and artistic levels. After that I felt like such a bad parent already that I decided to go for a nice healthy walk at about the time that I really should have been thinking about getting lunch. I put Abigail in the sling because using the pushchair would have involved finding the garage door keys and opening the garage door from the front (tricky at the best of times, impossible with a baby under one arm.) After a lengthy, damp, cold and generally uncomfortable walk for both of us, we arrived home to find that Abigail had removed a leg-warmer and hidden it in the middle of the hall floor before we'd even left. I hadn't noticed.
Remembering that I didn't have much in the house to cook with, I made toast pizza (take a slice of toast, spread it with tomato puree, grate cheese on top, add little bits of ham, pop under the grill) for my now tired, cold and hungry baby. To my surprise, Abigail ate it. So that brings the total of Things Abigail Will Eat By Herself to chicken nuggets, pizza and rusks. Mmm, healthy.
After lunch, I tried to persuade Abigail to have a nap, but she must have had about 5 seconds' secret sleep on our walk because she was wide awake and bouncing. So I took her to the clinic to get her weighed instead - something I haven't done since she was 7 months old because the clinic coincides exactly with her nap time. I managed to arrive at the clinic without any spare nappies, or even a nappy bag. Happily I had changed her just before we left, so I didn't have to put a dirty nappy back on in front of the health visitor, but I'm ashamed to admit that I said loudly, ostensibly to Abigail, "This one's still nice and clean, so we'll put it back on, shall we?" I don't know whether the health visitor was fooled, considering that I wasn't carrying any bag that could have concealed a clean nappy.
After that, we went to the co-op for a few things and then drove home. On the way home, Abigail predictably fell asleep in the car, so I mentally cancelled all the things I was going to get done while she napped, and then realised that I had forgotten to buy full-fat milk, the main thing I had gone to the co-op for. I'm glad that Abigail was too fast asleep to hear the word I said at this point. Stopped at the post office shop on the way home and went in to get milk, leaving her asleep in the car.
And now she's sitting on the floor, happily deleting apps from my iPhone, since in a room full of toys that's the only thing that would distract her from my laptop long enough to allow me to write this post.
The Rev is away on potty training (that's Post Ordination Training, to the uninitiated) so this goes to show how much I generally rely on him as back-up parent even when I'm 'taking care of Abigail' and he's 'at work'. One of the things we struggle with as a family is how difficult it is to keep these two job descriptions distinct when it all takes place under the same roof.
For a start, this morning I put the television on so that I could get dressed, and allowed Abigail to watch Waybuloo, a programme I disagree with on every level including educational, spiritual and artistic levels. After that I felt like such a bad parent already that I decided to go for a nice healthy walk at about the time that I really should have been thinking about getting lunch. I put Abigail in the sling because using the pushchair would have involved finding the garage door keys and opening the garage door from the front (tricky at the best of times, impossible with a baby under one arm.) After a lengthy, damp, cold and generally uncomfortable walk for both of us, we arrived home to find that Abigail had removed a leg-warmer and hidden it in the middle of the hall floor before we'd even left. I hadn't noticed.
Remembering that I didn't have much in the house to cook with, I made toast pizza (take a slice of toast, spread it with tomato puree, grate cheese on top, add little bits of ham, pop under the grill) for my now tired, cold and hungry baby. To my surprise, Abigail ate it. So that brings the total of Things Abigail Will Eat By Herself to chicken nuggets, pizza and rusks. Mmm, healthy.
After lunch, I tried to persuade Abigail to have a nap, but she must have had about 5 seconds' secret sleep on our walk because she was wide awake and bouncing. So I took her to the clinic to get her weighed instead - something I haven't done since she was 7 months old because the clinic coincides exactly with her nap time. I managed to arrive at the clinic without any spare nappies, or even a nappy bag. Happily I had changed her just before we left, so I didn't have to put a dirty nappy back on in front of the health visitor, but I'm ashamed to admit that I said loudly, ostensibly to Abigail, "This one's still nice and clean, so we'll put it back on, shall we?" I don't know whether the health visitor was fooled, considering that I wasn't carrying any bag that could have concealed a clean nappy.
After that, we went to the co-op for a few things and then drove home. On the way home, Abigail predictably fell asleep in the car, so I mentally cancelled all the things I was going to get done while she napped, and then realised that I had forgotten to buy full-fat milk, the main thing I had gone to the co-op for. I'm glad that Abigail was too fast asleep to hear the word I said at this point. Stopped at the post office shop on the way home and went in to get milk, leaving her asleep in the car.
And now she's sitting on the floor, happily deleting apps from my iPhone, since in a room full of toys that's the only thing that would distract her from my laptop long enough to allow me to write this post.
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