I woke up this morning with the distinct feeling that my right ear was going to explode and take half my head with it. I suspect it's either an ear infection or just some massive congestion from this stupid cold. This is one of the crappier parts of being mommy. The fact that even though I can't hear and I have a sharp stabbing pain in my ear and I'd really like to just lay down and die, I have a 19 month old who needs to be taken care of. When John was sick this week, he stayed home from work and napped all day in the basement while I, also sick, took care of the child. Ugh, I hate having to be the responsible one sometimes.
I pretty much spent the morning with the lights off, windows closed, laying on the sofa watching Ice Age: The Meltdown on a continuous loop. Alex doesn't actually watch TV after 8:00 AM. He's got better things to do you know. Like tearing apart my kitchen and throwing all his toys down the stairs. Having the TV on basically helped keep him in the family room and kitchen instead of tormenting the cat in my bedroom. At 11:00 I made the mistake of convincing Alex he needed to take a nap early. I was hoping I'd be able to nap along with him and when we woke up I'd be well rested and my ear would be better. Well, since he wasn't tired, he only slept for 45 minutes and was more hyper when he woke up. I wasn't any better. In fact, I was hoping my ear would just go ahead and explode already.
Since I'd basically ignored him all morning, I took Alex to McD's for lunch, hoping he could burn off some steam playing in the play area. I'd never taken him to McD's play area before, but my mom has and told me he has a good time. The problem is that the play area is basically just a giant multi-level tube system. This tube system looked like a giant Alex eating forest of plastic to me. I didn't want him getting anywhere near the tube system. I was sure he'd get lost in there and I'd never be able to retrieve him. They did have a little slide outside the tube system so I let him play on that for a while, but he snuck over to the tube system and went in. I didn't panic at first. He was still visible, but soon, as expected, he began to explore more and disappeared into the back area. This was about the time I began to panic. There were older kids in there trampling my son to death, I was sure of it. Luckily, I hadn't let him take his happy meal toy in with him, it was a little gun that had clapping hands when you pull the trigger. I grabbed his clapping gun and stood at the entrance to the tubes making it clap and saying "Alex, sweetie, it's time to go home" in the most calm and normal voice possible. Hundreds of kids (OK, maybe it was dozens) were going in and out of the play area and I couldn't see my little baby who I was sure by now had managed to find some kind of opening and was dangling out one of the broken, jagged tubes by his chubby little fingers. As the panic began to take over my body, my vocal chords tightened and I was now making odd squeaking sounds vaguely sounding like "Alex, honey, PLEEEAAAAASSSEEEE come out". As it turns out, he was just around the corner, only about six feet away from me, playing with a couple of little girls. He poked his head around the corner and smiled at me and said "Mommy!" and came right to me and grabbed the happy meal toy out of my hands. We left immediately after picking up John's lunch. I think from now on, I'll leave the McD's play place for my mom. It's just too stressful for me.
So now I'm home with a very awake, very hyper little boy who will very likely NOT take another nap today. My head is throbbing worse than before, and I have four very long hours to go before John gets home and I can indulge myself in the luxury of lying perfectly still in my bed in a Nyquil induced coma.
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