This is my first week of vacation and I am more exhausted than ever. Ain't that the way?
The Little Guy was here visiting for the last four days - he just left five minutes ago. He's such a great kid, it's scary -- but it's still a bit of a challenge having him around. The linguistic barriers make it difficult, and it wasn't until I brilliantly began incorporating Babelfish into our conversations that we got past the limited vocabulary available to us using gestures. His French is coming along, but our slow-motion conversation via the computer translations revealed that not only is he cute and good-natured, but he also has a quirky sense of humor that would indicate he's also quite bright.
I wrestled with a fair amount of issues this week, getting a glimpse for the first time of what it must be like for working moms. Of course, The Little Guy is nine and can fend for himself. But then again, he was here, alone, in a foreign country, without friends, and was 100% dependent on us not just for basic needs, but also for entertainment. I played tons of "Flying Hamsters" and the three of us had a wrapping-paper roll battle that lasted at least an hour. Legos, Sudoku, and paper airplanes also were important features of the week. It was fun, but mixing all that playing with all that working makes for rather long, tiring days. At one point, The Little Guy was reading a copy of "The BFG" ("Die VGR" or something in Dutch) and I couldn't help but think to myself that it is IMPERATIVE that my children love to read as much as my brother, sister, and I did growing up. It's insta-silence! The recipe for working while at home! Awesome!
But really, I did suffer some guilt issues, and I'm sure The Boy did too. I know he feels pressure for his work, as the project is going to launch soon(ish), and he was doing insane things like getting up at five am just to be able to have some work time. Of course, this system worked until one day when he just collapsed at noon. Coincidentally, noon is when I usually have to go into work, and there we were with a typical parent dilemna.
To make things more difficult, work has suddenly gone from a relaxing, borderline mundane job to a rather intense and stressful one. If I took a good hard look at things, I would probably say I prefer this second option to the previous one, but given that I've been sleeping less and spending a lot of time having thumb wars, this was not the best week to make the switch. I'm staying afloat, but it's been exhausting.
Last night, I went out to eat with some friends -- it was a lovely dinner and they're lovely people. It was pretty striking how hard it was for me - at first - to go back to adult conversation. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for someone who stays home with a two-year-old, alone, all day. And normally, I stay out until midnight, one, two, something to that effect. But by eleven, we were on our way home (I think they were pretty tired, too), and I walked in the door, took out my contacts, and went straight to bed.
So he's gone now, the house is quiet. The Boy and I have already decided that most likely this weekend will be spent inside, listening to the silence. However, I do have to say that the teamwork between The Boy and I this week has been stellar, and it makes me think that if we ever do have kids together, we'd be good at it. That's a cool thing to be able to say.
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