FLOODED WITH FUN

I try not to let more than a week go by between entries, so although I'm not really feeling it (it's late, I'm tired--the usual) I'm going to do a little update.

Joedy's been in California since Tuesday. He went to get some work done in LA and to send our remaining belongings (the stuff we left behind when we moved to Costa Rica) back here; he'll be home on Sunday, in time, we hope, for the fireworks.

I was apprehensive about being solo with the kids so we enrolled Lula in camp for this week; watching Malko is a full-time job, to say the least, and having his big sister occupied elsewhere seemed like a good idea. Lula loved camp on both Monday and Tuesday--she couldn't wait to go back Wednesday morning--but on Tuesday it started to rain really hard, enough to cause flooding in the street in front of our house and lots of other places on my way to pick her up that afternoon. After an hour and forty-five minutes in the car (it normally takes twenty minutes), terrified that the two feet of churning water we occasionally had to drive through would increase, all the while watching huge streaks of lightning shoot down and jumping at the VERY LOUD thunder, I was shaken and decided to play it safe the next day: Lula would go to camp only if "severe weather" was far, far away.

Wednesday morning predicted more heavy rain and possible flash flooding, so I kept her home; we made it out once, to give the dogs a walk at Town Lake and buy a couple activity-type presents for Lula (I bought them to keep her out of my hair, but ended up having to put the wind-up paper robots together myself) and an enjoyable, civilized cup of coffee for me, since the "coffee" we had in the fridge (something Joedy bought to deep-clean his intestinal tract, apparently) made me start sweating and jerking uncontrollably after just four sips. When we got home it was getting dark and we were all hungry, and things quickly slid into domestic chaos, with the end result being me standing in the kitchen trying not to cry from frustration (I kept kicking myself for not having taken Lula to camp) and wondering WHY THE HELL I hadn't bought any alcohol--at that point, by golly, I needed some badly.

Luckily our neighbor/friend gave me a beer and I made it through the dinner/bath/bed routine without feeling too much of the disturbing empathy I sometimes feel for Andrea Yates; by the time Lula and Malko were in bed and the sound of Malko's screeches--he's learning to speak raptor--had faded from my ears, I thought I actually liked my kids and perhaps it hadn't been such a shitty, wasted day after all. When Malko woke up at 2 a.m. and demanded first a bottle and then to "sleep" next to me (read: bang his heavy head into mine, thrash around, sit up, kick me in the stomach) I had a hard time falling back asleep, and the only reason I made it through the next day (the storm was supposed to strike again; Lula stayed home again) was because Malko fell asleep at 10 a.m. and slept till...

2:30!!

Yay, happy day! Malko, you heavenly, glorious child! Your mommy loves you--oh yes, she does! And now you can have all the banana-walnut-chocolate chip bread you want, you writhing bag of blubbery muscle! Because you left me alone for FOUR-AND-A-HALF HOURS! I was given almost five whole hours of freedom, during which I carefully stuck tiny robot pieces to other tiny robot pieces and did yet another HUGE pile of dishes! And changed my smelly shirt! Yay.

Last night I was so determined that Lula would go to camp today, and then, of course, not only was it raining this morning (it got floodish again at the bottom of the driveway, and I started thinking about what to pack in case we needed to evacuate--my ear plugs didn't make the cut, but I did consider bringing lotion, because I HATE having dry skin) but I was ex-haus-ted. Malko had been up again in the middle of the night, and I could barely keep my eyes open--I felt drugged. Luckily, he took another long nap and Lula read Calvin and Hobbes, and I got to sleep until 11:15, which was...wonderful.

Tomorrow Lula's playing with a friend, and since she's excited about that she didn't talk too much about camp, which was a relief. If it's clear tomorrow evening I might take the kids out for some tacos or something, maybe at a place that also sells alcohol? I have the feeling I'll be wanting a beer.