walking down the avenue...
Today, tomorrow, and half of Saturday, I am alone with my child. Ann is off to San Francisco for a business trip (a training seminar, to be precise), and so Krystal and I have to survive on our own for a few days.
So far, I am happy to say (all of 24 hours after dropping Ann off at the airport, 16 if you count instead from the time I picked Krystal up from day care), we are doing pretty well. I didn't get enough sleep, but that's because I decided that the cats wouldn't be loud enough to wake me up. I was sadly mistaken in this regard.
We have two cats: Tinker and Tiger. Since Krystal came along, they've both been a bit starved for attention. Used to be, they'd just paw quietly at the door in our apartment, and eventually give up when it wouldn't open. But now, Tinker in particular gets it in her head that she's sad or upset or dyspeptic or otherwise unsettled, and she sits at the door to our hallway and utters plaintive meowls for minutes on end. I figured that if I got to sleep, this yowlish meowing wouldn't bother me. But let me tell you, it's quite disturbing when you're in that first or second stage of light sleep and there's a sudden high-pitched "eeYaaaaaaooooWWWWWWWwwwwwww!", even if there is a closed door, 15 feet of hallway, another (only half-closed) door, and then another 12 feet to the ear which is not squished against the pillow.
Ordinarily we shut the cats into their room downstairs with the litter box, food and water, and a few comfy nesting spots so they can yawp all they want without disturbing us. I figured that wasn't worth the effort because, as a solid sleeper, I wouldn't be taking notice of them. Well. I ended up getting up 4 separate times to make Tinker shut the hell up, at 1:04, 1:20, 2:00, and 5:57. I had to reload the water pistol after the second time. And I made sure I got her good with at least several shots each time. We'll see if she's learned anything tonight.
But notwithstanding the cat issue, Krystal and I have done pretty well on our own so far. I picked her up from day care on time yesterday, dropped her off on time this morning, got her fed, kept her clean (face, hands, AND butt), made sure she stayed entertained, and managed to do a couple of things for myself too. Of course this may not sound like a lot to all the other parents out there, but I'm used to having help with all this. And I'm trying to stay away from playing the Baby Beethoven DVD; she loves it, and will happily sit and watch it 3 times in a row or more, which is probably not what you want an 11-month-old child to do. I'm keeping it in reserve as my "calming item of last resort". We just picked up a few new toys for her this past weekend, too, so she's got new stuff to keep busy with. My only real concern was when I discovered a small heap of cat puke behind the couch, where Krystal likes to crawl. Lucky for me, Krystal apparently went around it first, and I checked on her about 2 seconds later, before she got her hands into it.
I'm thinking I'll go to bed a little earlier tonight,and if I have to continue the cats' lesson beyond 1:00 am, back to the Feline Siberia for them. (Actually, I guess that would be the (unheated) garage; maybe the cat room should be the Kitty Gulag...)