...and reasons I'm not ready to be one.
I have moments when I think it would be fun to have a kids (usually when I see pictures of cute young families,
not when I am in the presence of energetic children). But most of the time, I am content to wait...and wonder if I'll ever want them. Two particular reasons I'd like to share today:
1) We have a Japanese exchange student staying with us for 12 days. I'm a first-time, short-term mom to a 16-year old. And the thing is, Tomoki is an easy "kid". He's quiet, complient, kind, courteous, polite, clean...generally just perfect. I'm sure it's different at home, in his own culture and language (of course, maybe not), but here, he is a relative breeze. I say relative because I'm not used to being responsible for someone, making him breakfast, packing him lunch, making sure we're out the door on time (ok, that doesn't actually happen, but I'm trying), making sure he understands what we are doing (he speaks English pretty well, but communicating is still tiring), making dinner (every night?!), etc. It's exhausting! Seriously. Babies....toddlers....they are NOT this easy!! I'm just not ready.
2) I have Adi. Seriously. This is not an "I'm a crazy cat woman pretending my cat is my child" moment. Look at my proof (thanks to my cell phone camera) - she does everything with me:
Balancing my checkbook and paying bills
Cutting out and organizing my coupons.
Cleaning out my purse.
Playing cards with me and Dave. I think this is hysterical.
Can that really be comfortable?
(*please note that my P.E. shirt from jr high fits Dave. Why on earth did they buy XL shirts for little jr high girls?*)
While I practice my piano.
At the computer.
On my lap while I fold laundry.
Climbing in the cupboards. (Doesn't every mom have a picture of her kid in the cupboard?)
Sleeping with us...
and will even sit in a carseat (not ours, don't worry).
She climbs in these positions by herself...very cute, I think. She totally neutralizes any need I feel to have a baby. No poopy diapers, no throw-up, no crying, no disciplining. For now, I'm totally content. :)
The most recent "I oddly feel like Adi is my child" moment came last weekend (and was not able to be captured by my cell phone camera like the others because both of my hands were already full). This story can also be titled - "Why David is my hero".
I had some laundry in the washing machine and when I went back down two hours after I had started a (30 min wash) load, it was still full of dirty water and wouldn't drain. Right now is not the ideal time to have our washer break. (I know, a washer breaking is never convenient, but we can't afford a new one at all right now and I really really want it to break some day when I can afford to get a really cool, HE front-load on a pedastal drawer...you know what I mean...the really expensive really spectacular ones with impressive features that are shown in every magazine ever published). Needing a new washer now would mean searching craigslist or praying someone wants to just give us one.
I came upstairs and announced that our washer was broken and Dave went to the basement to investigate. For the next few hours, he took off the front of the washer (didn't even know you could do that!) drained most of the water into a plastic storage tub to dump in the yard, researched solutions online, looked up parts, etc, while I was upstairs baking cookies (for him, of course!). My cookies had just finished baking and Dave needed me to come down and hold the flashlight while he inspected the drain pipes inside the washing machine. Adi was sitting in the living room (pretending to) innocently watch the action.
I was not about to let her eat all my cookies while I helped Dave in the basement so I scooped her up in my arms and we went downstairs together. I couldn't put her down once we were in the basement because there was water, dirt and all sorts of mess on the floor. I held Adi in my left arm (she was a good girl and sat on my left hip very contently) and the flashlight in my right and thought, this must be what it's like to be a mom. Such multi-tasking. ha!
After the urgency of this situation passed, I opted for locking Adi in our bedroom upstairs (something I don't plan to do with a real child) so I was better able to help Dave (and still save our cookies).
Well, the abridged version of the story goes like this - Dave first thought we would need to get a new pump for the washer, but turns out that when he unhooked the wash basin drain pipe from the water pump (and the rest of the water came pouring out on the floor. which he was sitting on. he took his getting soaking wet as a sacrifice for the team) he reached his hand up the pipe (while I dutifully held the flashlight - have I mentioned how glad I was to have that job instead of his sticking-my-fingers-inside-pipes-and-other-disgusting-things job?) and proclaimed "It's clogged! I can feel something up there, I just can't get it." Well after a few minutes he pulled out....
...one of my knee-high stockings. This little bugger had somehow slid down under the agitator to the bottom of the drain pipe right up against the water pump and was prohibiting the pump from pumping the water out and allowing the cycle to continue. So, after five or six hours of Dave's time, he single-handedly fixed our washing machine (I don't count my holding the flashlight as actually "helping"...if I wasn't around I'm sure he would've rigged it up somehow. Of course, if I wasn't around it wouldn've have been clogged in the first place. anyway...) and instantly became my hero. His outstanding action (and free labor) saved us a bunch of money and now the washer works as good as new. I didn't know he could do such handi-work!
So impressed.
Oh how I love him.
jj
