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Rob's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/15/00 -------------------- 11/7/00 11/1/00 10/25/00 10/10/00 10/4/00 9/25/00 9/19/00 9/13/00 9/6/00 8/29/00 8/23/00 8/16/00 8/8/00 8/7/00 8/1/00 7/26/00 7/19/00 7/12/00 7/5/00 6/26/00 6/15/00 6/8/00 5/25/00 5/22/00 -------------------- Rob's Introduction

June 26, 2000

Today I got up and gave Rowan some juice and yogurt for breakfast. I had coffee. I cleaned her up and we played casually while the news ran and Jenny bustled around getting ready for work. Mama gave us kisses and was out the door. Rowan watched Jenny leave from the window while I got another cup of coffee and then she pulled me by the hand into the kitchen. We determined after some negotiation that Rowan wanted peanut butter so I got it out and put some bread on to toast. Rowan began to scream in outrage. The time it would take to toast the bread was way too long to wait in her opinion, but I held out and made her four neat strips of peanut butter toast. Only as I write this does it occur to me that I could have simply given her a spoon-full of peanut butter. Oh well.

Rowan ate peanut butter toast, and I set about cleaning the living room. I moved her high-chair in from the kitchen and we listened to Buddy Holly while I tried to bring some order to the treacherous drifts of toys, books, clean and dirty laundry, shoes and junk mail that had managed to fill the available floor and table space. The last thing I did before we left town for the weekend was clean up the living room, and now the first chore on coming home was, once again, to deal with the mess in the living room. It's Rowan's primary play area, and our primary living space in an apartment that is really a bit small for our needs. While I picked up the laundry and trash, Rowan spread around the toys and books that I had picked up while she ate. And so the cycle goes.

We have a lot of laundry to get done, but I could only get one load in between the other tenants' washings. I decided to wash the cover of Rowan's car seat, which she puked all over on the drive back from Columbus yesterday. We were visiting with my mother, two of my brothers and my sister-in-law, and we had a great time, but today it was back to the hot, messy apartment. I took Rowan out to the rental car with me so I could get the seat and, when we brought it back, she refused to come inside. After a moment of argument, I decided we could afford to take a walk, and so we strolled around the block in the sunshine, stopping to sniff flowers and admire tall front stoops. (She wants to climb them all.)

Back at home, Rowan was acting tired and cranky, so I put her in the crib and took the car-seat cover down to the washing machine and then attacked the car-seat itself with cleaners and sponges. Once I felt reasonably sure she was asleep, I slipped outside to finish unloading and cleaning up the car. I heard Rowan babbling grumpily to herself through the window as I tossed out the road-trip deposits of empty water bottles, beef jerky wrappers, stray "Cheerios" and discarded peanut-butter sandwiches.

By the time I got back inside, she was demanding to get out of bed. She wanted to read books. She wanted to read a lot of books, and she wanted me to read them all with her. Then she wanted to ride on my back. "Horsy" is a new game for Rowan, and she is still learning how to hold on and where to sit. And I am learning that I need a pair of knee-pads.

It was almost lunch time now, and I thought we deserved a treat, so we went to the taqueria on the corner. While I made a grocery list, I ate bistec ranchero, and Rowan ate rice and beans. The rental car had to go back this afternoon, but I wanted to take advantage of it first. Normally, unless I drive Jenny the 45 minutes to work, and then pick her up in the evening, I don't have a car during the day, so grocery shopping can be a challenge. This time we went all out, and got everything we needed, no matter how heavy it was. Rowan was a little cranky at the store, and managed to mark her face up with my pen. We finished the shopping without any major incidents, and she fell asleep again in car on the way home. I let her snooze in her seat while I ran the groceries in and then got back behind the wheel to return the car.

The car rental company theoretically has pick-up and drop-off service, but this time there was only one rental agent in the office and a line of people waiting for service. He assured me it would just be "one minute more" but I suspected differently. Luckily, I had anticipated this, and Rowan's umbrella stroller was in the trunk. Unluckily, I still had to carry the car-seat. I'm sure all you dads and moms know what I'm talking about: not the little safety-seat/infant-basket combo, but the big toddler seat. It was only about eight blocks, and Rowan slept from the car-seat to the stroller and most of the way home.

She woke up in a nasty mood about two blocks from our apartment. I can't blame her really. Her naps had been short and confusing. She fell asleep in a car-seat and woke up in a stroller somewhere entirely different, and she was not keen on letting me put the groceries up and clean the kitchen. When the door-bell rang announcing Jenny's arrival home, Rowan ran to me furiously calling "Mama, Mama, Mama!" Two minutes ago was too late to open the door for Mama. I was glad to see her too, and really glad when she volunteered to make dinner. Thanks honey, how was work? And why, after a day like today, do I feel like I didn't accomplish anything?