Hobbies

Last week, I went back to work for the first time in three months. When I was home with the baby, I wasn’t super productive as far as housework goes, but I did manage to get some things done every once in awhile. But between travelling for the holidays and venturing back out into society in general, household tasks have more or less fallen by the wayside. I have limited hours of free time, and I’d rather not spend it with a Swiffer cloth or my washing machine. Besides, Brigid is pretty laid back in the morning, which is when I used to get stuff done, but she likes constant attention in the evening, which is the only time I’m home now. The problem is, while I’m not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination, things piling up around the house start to tweak my crazy strings. And believe me, they don’t need any tweaking. So Sunday morning, I fed Brigid and passed her off to Steve while I went upstairs to dust and do laundry. I am actually a big fan of sorting dirty laundry and washing clothes, just not so much of folding them and putting them away. This means there’s usually several piles of clean clothes scattered throughout my house in laundry baskets or on beds, usually under blankets or towels to keep the cats off of them (I’ve learned from past experience that piles of clothes make very comfortable spots to nap on, and cats shed when they nap. I’d rather not have to re-wash clean clothes, thankyouverymuch.). So it took some time to get all of this done.

I made it back downstairs for the kid’s next feeding, and Steve was on the phone with his mother. The conversation went something like this…

Steve: (semi-joking, I think) I’d love to go downstairs and play Call of Duty, but I don’t know if Tara will let me.
Steve’s mom: Something, something, something, you each need to have time for your hobbies (obviously, she was on the phone, and I couldn’t hear exactly what was said, but I assume it was something like that).
Steve: Tara, we both need to have a chance to enjoy our hobbies.
Me: I don’t have time for hobbies anymore.
Steve: But I’ve had the baby all morning.
Me: LAUNDRY DOES NOT COUNT AS A HOBBY!!!!!

And I walked off muttering obscenities under my breath.

Kidding! Actually, since I am a fantastic wife (and since I’d left Steve the day before for several hours while I went to a Notre Dame women’s lunch), I took the baby, and he got to go play his game. And everyone was happy. Except for the people he beat on Call of Duty. But they don’t really count.

On a baby related note, since that’s what this is all supposed to be about, Brigid went down last night around 9:15 and didn’t get up until around 7:30 this morning. Woo! I just hope she’s not lulling us into a false sense of security, only to turn on us when we’re least expecting it. I hear kids are sneaky like that. Anyway, we’ve been trying to transition her to an earlier bedtime (she has been going to bed around 10:30 or 11) by moving her from 4 ½ ounce bottles six times a day to almost 6 ounce bottles five times a day. Her final feeding is now earlier in the evening, leading into the earlier bedtime. Last night was our first attempt, so we’ll see if this holds up over time. I’m so used to putting her down and then going straight to bed myself that I don’t know what I’ll do with some baby-free time in the evenings.

Maybe this will give me a chance to re-develop a hobby or two outside of laundry...