Four Hours of Freedom?

Oh My God, do I need a pick me up today! My eyes just won't stay open, my head feels like a ton of bricks and my body doesn't seem to be responding to my brain at all. And it's only Monday! I still have a whole week of early wake ups left.

Neel is at school for four hours now, the longest he's ever been away from me. At first, I didn't really know what to do with my time and spent most of it staring at the clock, counting the minutes that were left. I've completely forgotten how to have some 'me time' now. Which is why it really gets my goat when people now say,

"oh my god, four hours! What do you do for so long?" And,

"Lucky you! Now you've got so much time to yourself." Or,

"Enjoy your four hours off."

That last one was from my husband this morning.

First of all, thank you everyone for your concern for my "FREE TIME" and also for quanitifying it constantly and reminding me on every occassion that I now have so called "time off".

Seriously people, I've spent the past three years of my life obsessing about my child. I still do, more so now than ever before. I wake up in the morning for him and spend each and every hour of the day trying to make him happy, healthy and comfortable. When he is at school, I clean for him, plan his menu, his day and prepare for him coming home. I'm all about him!

I've spent sleepless nights working at the office, made some really lenghty presentations to some very difficult clients and I've survived some very nasty office politics. I did this for many years and I realised that as long as I could come home and distance myself from work, it was easy.

Being a stay at home mom is A LOT harder! I say this because I have experienced both worlds. Funnily though, I've never been so content in my life. I may not be bringing in the cheque, but I feel like I've found my calling even though on many, many occassions I find myself holding on to the little bit of sanity I have left.

The point I'm trying to make is that everybody gets some time to unwind at the end of the day. I haven't had that for over three years now. So, if I am getting my precious four hours, let me have it without having to hear from you how lucky I am to have it.

I definitely deserve it!

Week 1 of School - We Survived!

Thank God it's Friday! It's been one hellova week for us in this toddler household. Neel's new preschool demands attendance at 8:30 am, which to us lazy folk is the crack of dawn. Wake up time therefore is 7 am, which to us is the middle of the night. Okay yes, we have been very reluctant enforcing early wake up with Neel but he is afterall still a baby. He has his whole life ahead of him waking up to the shrill ringing of an alarm at all ungodly hours of the day or night.

Once he is awake, Neel insists on brushing his teeth with his Dad. I really don't know why he just doesnt seem to trust my oral hygiene methods, but whatever works! The challenge then is to feed him. We try literally EVERYTHING to coax him to eat. The last fifteen minutes is left for grooming, bathing and what have you. Then is the dash to school in the car with me cooing about how fun school is going to be. Trust me, singing Old Mcdonald had a farm and mooing like a cow at red lights, while looking like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards, does raise a few eyebrows. But what the heck, Neel is happy and goes to school with a little skip in his step and that's all that matters.

We've been doing this for a week now and I feel like I need to scrape myself off the floor, quite literally! Help, how am I going to get through the next fourteen years of his school life?