Thursday, May 26, 2005

Well.

Just back from the kid's field day. 88 kids, ages 3 to 12, howling around a field dumping buckets of water on one another, shooting each other with water guns, squirting each other (and their parents) with hoses, ambushing each other with water balloons, and (toward the end) wallowing in mud. Also cookies. Now she is officially out of school for the summer.

This is, needless to say, not good news for me -- I've been out of the spring semester for a week, and Summer I doesn't start for another week, and I have been blissfully at work every day, writing every morning for six solid hours at a stretch. (Everyone believes university professors get the summers "off," which some of us do -- not me, because I have to teach both summer sessions if we're going to survive, but even if professors do turn down summer teaching appointments, we're always writing or doing research or taking summer courses over those months we're "off," I'd just like to point that out, one time, okay?) I've been getting some excellent work done, this week I've been "off."

Now, instead, I'll be poked in the kidney every twenty minutes by a plastic dinosaur...asked for a peanut butter sandwich...asked to fetch a new book...asked if I won't get the watercolors for her...asked whether she can go outside and play in the hose...asked how much longer I'm going to work...asked for more milk...asked for another cookie...

I knew having a kid would be work. It was the endless interruptions I wasn't expecting.

Also the piano lessons. It's a good thing I didn't know about the piano lessons. Those might have been a deal breaker.

Good thing she's so cute.

Of course, that's why they come so cute.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes cuteness further's their survival doesn't it? Summer is here ... arghghgh... It always seems worse in the beginning than it does in the fall.

Anonymous said...

Same situation here, only twice as much fun with two kids. I'm a SAHM myself, and pretend to be a writer. I could actually be a writer if I could find time to write around "I don't know what to doooo!" demands. I agree with the cuteness thing too; the husband and I often say the reason children are so cute when they're asleep is self-defense.

Your kid is lucky; it's been cold and rainy here so her school's "field day" was indoors.

Anonymous said...

Woops, meant to say my older daughter's school.

zelda1 said...

Cute does make for a lot of good things when it comes to our children. It's hard to say no and really mean it, it's hard to walk out of the room and leave them sleeping with their cherub looking faces, and on and on. But, when those children grow up and have their own children, nothing and I mean nothing could be more pleasurable. Even the dirty diapers are...wll not cute but it's all fun. My two grandsons and one adopted by love granddaughter are the cutest things. Their faces are so sweet and I could just hug them all day long. There is nothing that makes a heart swell like grandkids. so if you like the cuteness of your own, wait until you own make their own.