Out of necessity, Sydney and I have been “covering” for each other a bit in the past few weeks. He helped me carve out time to prepare for a job interview, and now it’s my turn to help him find time for a laundry list of things as the term and academic year wind down (end of term here is later than in the States; we finish up in about a week).
When I resurfaced from interview notes and sample teaching demonstrations I found a husband who looked a bit worn: scruffy, sleepy, with one arm around Nathaniel and the other hanging onto the book Katherine wanted him to read. Now that it’s my turn I’m probably going to join him in the scruffy, sleepy, worn department. For now we’re taking for granted that heavy two-kid time will result in some wear and tear on the parent in charge. Maybe we’ll get better at this, but for now we find it exhausting!
So far I’m doing well: I’ve run to the grocery store twice and have the fridge stuffed with lots of food to get us through the next couple of days. I want to make sure we get out a lot and enjoy the long evenings available to us this time of year. But both kids have decided to stop sleeping well, so we’ll see how I fare. Nathaniel must be doing some serious growing: he gets pretty unhappy if he isn’t fed every hour-and-a-half or so, day and night. Katherine is starting to make him smile, though, and today she played with him very nicely while I cooked: ten whole minutes of smiling, pushing him gently in the swing, and patting his head before her impatience came tumbling out and she tried more “enthusiastic” swinging.
Erin
Alan Schmierer