little black journal

For the first couple of months of Juliette’s life, I resisted going anywhere.  It just felt like such an ordeal, with the jacket and hat and the carseat straps and the inevitable carseat meltdown and the schlepping of the baby and all her associated gear.  And she was such a wild card – I didn’t know if I was facing a leisurely stroll through the aisles of Target while pushing a sleeping baby in front of me, or if I’d be auditioning for Supermarket Sweep, making a mad grab for laundry soap and shampoo while Juliette squirmed and fussed and drew sympathetic glances from fellow shoppers.  But at some point in the past few weeks, the tides have turned and “Do we really have to leave the house?” became “We HAVE to leave the house!!!”.  It’s true – the three to four-hour period between her morning nap and afternoon nap can feel like an eternity if we have nothing on the agenda.  On those days when weather or laziness or lack of planning keeps us indoors, I find myself grasping for ways to fill our time, stretching out simple activities like getting her dressed or putting her clothes away, turning a two-minute diaper change into a ten-minute song and dance, because she’s already spent twenty minutes batting at the elephant on her playmat and she’s tired of her bouncer and she’s not due to eat for another 47 minutes.  That oft-referenced adage about parenthood rings so true sometimes – the years are short but the days are loooooong.

Today we had no plans.  And it was raining.  And Juliette is in the midst of her first cold.  Looked like it was going to be a manic Monday indoors…  I made us a nest of blankets and pillows on the living room floor, spread out all her favorite toys and books, and we hunkered down.  We read the complete Eric Carle collection (three times!), I sang every single song I could remember from my days as a Girl Scout plus a couple of upbeat Taylor Swift ditties, we practiced standing and sitting and knocking over towers of blocks and Juliette tested the chewability of each rattle, stuffed animal, block, and ring within her reach.

That all took about 25 minutes.

“What else you got, mama?”

So at 1:00, when the clouds parted and the sun came out, cold flu be damned, I strapped Juliette into the Ergo and we were OUT!

The walk did us both good.  We came back refreshed, ready for one more round of read-sing-rattle before heading upstairs for naptime.  Don’t misunderstand me – I love these quiet days at home with my baby, but that Very Hungry Caterpillar is quickly losing his charm.