These past few days have been slightly more chaotic than my usual hectic weekends (and weekdays). I’m juggling sharing a car with my daughter while her car is out of commission for the next few weeks, I’m hosting Baby Boy’s grandfather from Arizona, I’m helping a kid move into an apartment, and all of the usual daily stuff involved in keeping a house, working, and helping with baby, cats and a dog.
Sometimes, I feel like a spinning dreidel. This weekend, definitely. From one thing to the next, these past few days have been non-stop. As I type this blog post, I’m doing it one-handed while holding a sleeping baby.
It’s amazing how quickly you learn to negotiate daily life with only one functioning arm. I’ve learned that I can do almost anything one-handed. Occasionally, I’m not only one-handed, but I’m holding the bottle with my chin. I am the Cirque du Soleil of Baby World.
The cats and dog have been slightly miffed since the baby’s birth. None of the animals are number one, two and three anymore. There are two camps in my house now: Team Four-legged Daybreakers or Team Sweet Baby Nightwalker.
Baby Boy is nocturnal and his mother has the night shift, while I have the morning/day shift. Baby Boy’s father gets him for a couple of hours in the evening so we can take a few deep breaths.
Raising a child takes a village or at least a smitten grandmother. It’s similar to writing a book. When I write, instead of a child, I’m raising a story. Instead of a smitten grandparent, I’m an obsessed writer. The village consists of my editor, proofreader, publisher and readers.
When I’m writing, there are times I’m going here and there and trying to tie up all loose ends. I write on the fly, so chaos is my normal mode of operations. If I get stuck (like a car breaking down), I stop and try to fix what’s wrong.
Writing and raising children. So many differences, so many similarities.
And now for something different and long overdue:
I feel like I’m cheating on my pets. They are no longer Number One on my lap. Out of guilt, I promised to make them famous on WordPress, so here goes:
Neglected ( or so they think) Pet Collage
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J J Dare is the author of two published books, several short stories and triple digit works-in-progress.
Current enthusiasm is sharpening intangible knives and co-authoring at Rubicon Ranch
