I have been a "single parent" since Monday afternoon, when Andrew left to check out some real estate deals in New Hampshire. Andrew has a mentor and his methods are bringing in LOTS of prospects. He already has 3 deals and signs one contract tomorrow. I am so proud of him for pursuing his goals. He wants more time home and less time at work, and earning extra income from real estate is part of our plan -- and it seems to be working!
Anyways, I have been totally focusing on Arianna. I put my baby sling e-book on hold this week. We went down to visit Grammy and the cousins. I have a playdate scheduled for Friday. As long as Arianna is busy, she is the happiest child in the world. So we are busy, except it feels like double busy for me because I don't have a tag team partner right now.
We went outside to go for a walk in the stroller, but Arianna climbed into her Little Tykes car and refused to get out. I thought about hoisting her out of the car and dumping her into the stroller and going for a walk, despite her obvious preference to play in her car. I, after all, really needed to go for a walk to clear my head. Then, I thought, "In Tai Chi, they say it is better to go with the flow than to try and resist it. Stop being such a stubborn old mule and give up the stroller idea."
I considered pushing her down the road in her car, but that is noisy and hard on the back and she always drags her feet, which makes it ten times more difficult. Then I looked at the garden and saw it in desperate need of weeding. I pushed Arianna and the car over to the nearest bed and started yanking weeds. As I moved along, Arianna moved along too. I ended up sitting in the grass as I attacked a particularly virulent bunch of creeping charlie when Arianna came up to me and said, "Hugs."
I hugged her and we rolled around in the grass. She sat on my lap and we saw the gibbous moon in the sky. A little while later, we sat on the porch swing and stared at the lake. She learned a new word (mourning dove) and we watched the sunset as we chatted about what we saw and heard.
I hope our relationship is always filled with lovely moments like these. Maybe parenting a toddler isn't so bad after all.
Rebecca
P.S. Who did you think the stubborn mule would be when you first read the title?