Remember to breathe
Whew - it was one of those days I needed to remind myself to breathe as I helped Tai fall asleep (after a short tantrum about not getting dessert at 9pm, and while Miriam yowled upstairs because I'd only nursed her for 45 minutes and she wanted more) and then went back up stairs to help Miriam again. (Also two more times with her, because... I have no idea - she doesn't want to sleep alone tonight.)
It's been unusually cold in San Francisco for the past few days. I don't think it broke 50 during the day, and it's been down at freezing and below during the nights. I shouldn't complain - it's much colder in Michigan and Maryland (where I grew up) but we're not used to it here! It feels like winter, suddenly, which I like when I'm decorating for Christmas, but do not like when I'm trying to keep the kids busy. Yesterday we went to the Academy of Science, but today Miriam was sleepy, Tai wanted to play on his iPad and with his Legos and I just couldn't get up the motivation to do something interesting. It felt too cold to go outside, even just to another indoor event.
Staying inside, though, meant we were all stir-crazy by mid-afternoon. Miriam took a long nap, though she kept waking up and needing me to nurse her, rock her, or lay down with her. Both kids were grumpy, the dogs were antsy and I had that annoying foggy-head feeling from being in the house for too long. It took some convincing, but I got the kids in their coats, shoved the dogs in the car and we took a brief trip to the park nearby. We all felt better after that, fresh air frisked all of us up, even Luna who is having more trouble getting around in the cold than she had been. I can't believe she's going to be 14... and that she's still trucking along, even after last January, when she couldn't walk at all.
Then neither kid was very hungry at dinner, and I started to get nervous that one or both of them was getting stomach flu. Not a good thing with Tom away for two weeks. But I reminded myself to breathe and just kept going. This too shall pass, all the hard stuff as well as all the good stuff. It's 11:30 and Miriam seems to be staying asleep, Luna and Foxy are asleep next to me on the couch and I'm about to nod off, too. The days are short, but there's still light in the darkness. I just need to remember that.