Today started as normal – in a routine, everything as I planned. This is where I function optimally. Then breakfast happened…
What you need to know about me is that I do not do well with change or surprises. My Fight-or-Flight reflex should really be renamed the Function-or-Freeze reflex.
The only way I can explain my day would be by equating it to a game of UNO:
I had all my cards in my hand and my strategy was planned. Getting rid of the chores today was like letting go of those glorious numbers one by one. Then breakfast happened, and Baby decided, ‘No, no, no. I do not like porridge anymore. She threw me a +4; and yes, she literally threw the porridge at me as she spat out! So Momma had to pick up her 4 cards and strategize a new breakfast, while Baby is crying and hungry.
I got back on track, new strategy, ready to let go of those numbers one by one, then ‘wham!’ a bunch of Reverse and Skip cards emerged. Baby wanted 100% attention. ‘You have to stop your work Momma and pick me up, carry me and play with me for a few hours, as naps are not on the cards today.’
The next few hours was on Skip for me and my chores as Baby played her cards one by one. Eventually I got back in the game, with my own Skip cards, and got her to nap – a huge morale boost for me. Now I am in it to win it.
Lunch time happened and the game continued with a few +2 cards from both sides: ‘Eat this, Baby’, but Baby spits it out instead. ‘Ta that Momma’, but Momma insists Baby first need to eat her veggies, etc. You know how it goes, coaxing children to eat things.
After lunch Baby had some Wild cards instore for me. She kept changing the rules and the games that I wanted to enforce, and it looked like she was going beat me at the game today.
Luckily 6pm arrived (Phew!) and I had some +4’s in my arsenal for the last round. As I dealt my cards, supper, bath and bed went swimmingly.
So here I sit now, basking in my UNO victory of today with my glass of wine, and thinking about which game is in store for this Momma tomorrow…