Tra la, tra la

V. and Noah’s 4th day was much like Thursday – he was happy to see her, mad at me for leaving, and tired and a bit strung out by the end of the morning.  They went to the library together, which left me a fair bit of quiet time, theoretically.  In practical terms this just gave me more time to imagine a thousand bad things and I cleaned the car off twice waiting for the call to pick them up. 

We’ll get there. Someday.

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Today I really felt angry at Noah. Not rageful or anything like that, but angry nonetheless – for the first time at him as a little person.  He has been learning the sign for “angry” which sort of is like reverse clawing your face, but he’s got the idea that you claw at the face of the person at whom you’re angry. So first he did that, telling me he was angry by gouging at my eyes, and then he head-butted me.  Then about an hour later, he bit me while nursing. I ended the nurse at that point but 10 minutes later he asked very nicely, so we started again and then he clawed at me all upset that there was blood in his drink.

It was around that point that I thought I’d better walk away, so I did, and got a car thrown at me.  Then I said “Cars are not for throwing!” and took it away. But, you know, my tone was not exactly friendly. Then I got the dramatic throw self to the ground (after moving to the rug area) and wail. Why yes, he is a toddler, why do you ask? Warm cow’s milk saved the afternoon all around, and I didn’t even put rum in mine.

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Speaking of which I did view the Today Show clip of Melissa Summers of Suburban Bliss fame getting hauled on the carpet for drinking a glass of wine at playgroups.  I entirely agree that until men are being hauled on the carpet for drinking a beer at BBQs in front of their kids, or there’s an expose on adult eggnog containing rum at Christmas, a FAMILY HOLIDAY, this kind of piece is worse than fluff; it’s sexist nonsense.  Then again this is why I don’t have broadcast television. (Because I can waste my time more effectively reading about it on the Internet.)

But Americans! The reason that your media and society are having wars about these things is because it is effectively keeping you mothers away from the real issues like parental leave.  In this spirit, my post tomorrow-after-deadline (or Thurs) will be about how parental leave has helped me.