Making Myself Accountable

Leo left Sunday night after our crazy day. I admit...I was a big baby and I cried when he left. I hate when he travels. Before Gia, it bothered me but I got to a point where I didn't mind it as much. I watched TV all night (and even fell asleep to it), made breakfast for dinner and if I didn't feel like straightening up, I didn't. Now, I am torn between wanting to overhaul my house (we do a very stubborn silly thing by being at a stand-off with things around the house...he won't clean the mail corner so I won't clean my side of the closet. It's a very healthy relationship with our house) and wanting to crawl into the fetal position in my bed and not come out until he comes back. Even though Gia is a huge "Mommy's Girl", when Leo would come home from work, it was as if the cavalry arrived. This is like the movie, Groundhog Day or like a bad hamster wheel existence. It's race, race, race, fall into bed, wake up and race, race, race again. Since I cannot crawl into my bed and not come out, I am overhauling the house. I am writing it here so that I can report back that I did it all or feel like a complete failure.

1.) For once and for all, get rid of the mail corner. I have a bin and all of it is going in there and heading for the basement.

2.) Go through my closet and organize it and finally get rid of the clothes I wore when I taught. Now that we have our little miracle surprise, by the time I go back to teaching, those clothes will either be out of style (they already are) or won't fit.

3.) Try and find the 18month clothes bin that my BFF gave me so that I can see what Gia has already.

4.) Take the advice of my friend who says to fill a laundry basket of your kid's clothes and bag the rest. That way there is always room for their clothes to be put away instead of shoved inside.

5.) Strive for bare counters and tabletops. Throw away things that Leo keeps taking out of the garbage when I try and throw them away.

The last one is a stretch. With three kids always putting stuff on the table, it looks like a bomb goes off periodically and with Gia, I am always having to put stuff out of her reach on counters and tabletops but a girl can dream.

On a side note, I think 8th grade boys are just as hard to watch as 19 month olds. I have had a few over at my house lately and Nico tells me stories and I have come to the conclusion that they have odd senses of humor, they are rarely not in motion, they are loud, they don't smell the best, they are constantly walking around without shirts on, they eat more food than I usually have in the house and what they think is funny gets them in trouble in school, practices and home. The sense of humor one is the one that is a thorn in my side at the moment. Gia slept through the night last night. You would think that meant that I did too. I did not, thanks to one of the football players on Nico's team. Nico was lying down icing his knee when this kid went up to him and dumped a water bottle on his head. Nico said he got mad and the kid said, "It's just a joke". Sooo not funny.  Water got in Nico's ear and he was up all night in pain. I know there is nothing like ear pain (much like tooth pain) so I felt bad for him. I gave him Advil and had some earache drops. He reverted back to a two year old and finally cried himself to sleep with his head on my lap at around 1:00am. I, however, did not sleep because he moaned in his sleep all night long. I was going to let him stay home but he got up in a panic and said he had to go to school. I fully expect that I am going to get a phone call today. Hating the 8th grade sense of humor.