As you would expect, living on one income gets tight. It's days like today that are the most stressful. I don't have a car. We have a car for Josh which he takes to work. His commute is an hour and a half away. Sometimes, my mom lets me borrow her car. We live in the same town as my parents and my in-laws. This is wonderful to have all of that support.
On nice walking days when my very busy mom can fit us in, she picks up me and Zach and takes us to the park for a walk and play time on the playground. It's the days when she's too busy that are difficult, although not as difficult as they were when he was a baby. If it's nice outside we take a walk and/or play in the "yard". We live in a two bedroom condo so the grassy area in front of our window is the yard. Zach likes to explore looking for rocks, sticks, and leaves. When it's nice outside these days aren't stressful. We have a blow up kiddie pool for Zach (I go in too) for when it's hot enough to swim. But it's days like today and in the winter that are hard.
It's very cloudy and the forecast is for rain at various points in the day. It takes at this time of year 20 - 30 minutes to get us ready to go outside so it could rain by the time we are ready. Even if I let him walk around outside for a while there is a bigger chance of us getting wet so we stay inside, all day, until after dinner which will be ready to eat about two minutes after Josh gets home at 4:45-5. I plan dinner for 5. After we eat it's clean up then we get the you know what outta here until 7:30 when it's bedtime snack for Zach time.
Last night we used that time to order new bedtime books for Zach at Barnes and Nobles since as of November 1st all bottles will be gone. He already gets three bedtime stories. One is seasonal so three of the ordered Thumper (Disney) books are the other seasons and the fourth book is Goodnight, Thumper. He loves books. Of course there was a false alarm lost mommy's necklace resulting in an early return home.
The family above us have a 3 year old. They both work and he's in daycare. Most days we hear them doing their morning routine but today they were pretty loud. It's an apartment I can't complain about it but it did mean Zach woke up early so nap time will be crucial for both of us!
We have a reasonable selection of toys for Zach and other things to occupy him on days like this. Luckily, yesterday it was nice enough to be outside so we went for a walk in the morning and he played outside for a while after his nap. Today that's not an option meaning by 2:30 we will have played with everything he likes and will start touching the stuff he knows he can't touch and whining for me to life all 25 pounds of him so he can reach the things that have been put out of his reach on purpose. As I typed that right there he opened two kitchen drawers he's not allowed in. Nothing dangerous like knives (the baster, spatulas, and ice cream scoop drawer, and the take out menu drawer) but things he'll either destroy or cause to be dirty therefore a constant stream of unnecessary cleaning. Much like when he takes all of my shirts and all of my PJ's out of their drawers just for fun. I feel like I'm always folding cloths!!! I don't care about the cloths since that is easy to take care of. It's just hard without a car.
A car means we would be able to get out when we BOTH get stressed from being inside too long. Even if it's just a short drive. In the winter when it's been too much and I feel my sanity slowly slipping I ask my mom for the car but I try not to inconvenience her by asking too often with the exception of needing it for important things like doctor's visits. Josh grocery shops on weekends.
Have you ever thought about what life would be like with only one car? What if you were stuck inside home all day? I love to decorate. I even have a decorating day once a month so at least what I'm looking at changes regularly. I'm not complaining about these days because they happen and not all of them amount to bad days. They have their stresses but every day has stresses to it for everyone no matter what. They also have a lot of joy. When Zach gets bored he comes over to me for hugs and kisses. Sometimes he likes to sit in my lap and watch PBS Kids shows. He has moved on to looking at a book. That lasted two minutes and now he plays with the music table. When he would start getting into too much no-no stuff last year I put him in his playpen with toys for a while. It's a mommy time out. The playpen is in the garage now so he gets his high chair or his crib and some toys when he pushes his limits and mommy needs to regain her thoughts. He's a wonderful kid. He's a good boy who is curious. He's great at following directions most of the time (even adults can't follow every direction), he is starting to put his toys away, and has an infectious smile. I love spending time with him. He even is great for his age at interacting with other kids!!!
I love motherhood and I'm lucky to have such an easy kid. Zach is my angel. The problem with being inside is he has already explored everything in here that he is allowed to several times and he's really just a curious kid. That's what leads him to go into the lazy susan and start removing it's contents including flower and cooking oil. No we can't put locks on it due to the location of the countertop. It's almost lunch time and he's letting me know it since nap is after lunch so I'll post again soon but in the meantime back to the adventure of parenting a curious 16 month old BOY stuck indoors without even a car for escape until Daddy gets home.
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