complaints

Just to warn you, I've had a rough couple of days.  Nothing bad happened.  We've just been getting back into the swing of things after a very long break and I'm finding it all much harder. Here's the thing: S is a toddler.  She is into everything.  She pulls all the tupperware out of the drawer, and while I'm picking those up, she's redistributing our shoes all over the house.  And after that she's on to pulling all the kids clothes out of the drawers.  And so on and so on.  I feel like I'm saying "No touch!" all day long.  And I'm not getting anything done.  Right now I have a short list of a couple cleaning projects around the house, for example the basket of random things that need to be put away.  But I'm barely able to stay on top of dishes and laundry, much less anything else.  Part of this, I know, is that I've forgotten what it was like, since during our break I had plenty of time for cleaning, along with the necessary motivation.  So I need to readjust my expectations.  But the other thing is that I'm just tired.  I don't want to pick things up all day long and still feel like there's a mess.  So something has got to give.  

I've been remembering that when Z was this age, we use to take little shopping trips almost everyday, often just to browse and get out of the house.  I think that's how I kept her busy. And when L was this age, well, I was at my wit's end and couldn't understand why this whole two kids thing wasn't getting any easier.  So here I am again, and I guess I need a new strategy. Perhaps only doing cleaning projects on the weekends and just taking care of the basics during the week?  Perhaps I should just leave the house a mess until just before dinner? Or maybe I'll clean out that basket of junk and instead throw in the tupperware, shoes, some clothes, and maybe a few crayons for good measure.  It'll be easier to pick up.  (I'm trying to be creative here.) Probably I should try to get the majority of my chores done in the morning before we start school, and then just plan to pick up once or twice later on. And I think it would be good to start a box of special toys just for S to use in the afternoon.  I could put in some puzzles, toddler crayons, sorting blocks, etc.  And it might also be good to have a bit of a routine for her, maybe an afternoon bath time to break up the day.  Jomo has reminded me, though, that one of the things we learned with baby #2 is that probably life is just harder now.  The things that are hard change as they grow.  It won't always be S getting into things, but I shouldn't expect that it'll ever go back to how it was with two kids.