ring ring

You know that silly prank phone call, the one where kids ask "Is your refrigerator running?"

They should've called us about 7am so I could go down and check, because ours isn't.

I spent a good half-hour this morning shuttling things out to the fridge/freezer in the garage. THANK GOD we have a fridge/freezer in the garage, yes, but STILL. I filled the garbage can with anything that looked unsaveable, plus a bunch of stuff I didn't feel deserved emergency fridge space. The garage fridge was running when I left, the indoor fridge was empty and sad and only slightly cool.

Otto heard me banging around downstairs and got worried that I wasn't going to bring him his cup of milk (sometimes we have breakfast in bed). He was OK after I apologized and told him the refrigerator was broken, that I had to move everything outside. He started saying "the REFRIGERATOR is broken? the refrigerator is BROKEN!" and laughing. Because it's funny (I guess).

Saying sorry is getting to be important in our house. So is expressing how we feel. This morning I handed Otto his toothbrush, and he told me he was "very very cross" because I laid it next to him instead of putting it in his hand. He's big on the whole "don't touch me!" thing right now, which makes dressing him fun most days. I'm using the old 1-2-3 warning system, as in "OK, kiddo, I'm going to count to three. If you haven't turned the TV off/climbed in your car seat/shut the door by the time I get to three, I'm going to do it for you." Works like a charm 90% of the time because he wants to Do It Himself.

I'm trying to make sense of budget stuff at work, get ready for our annual meeting, and plan summer reading and programs for adults. Lots of brain and phone work, when what I really need is a nice quiet stint of weeding or a long session with the review journals I've neglected this month. It's supposed to storm today. I hope it does, it might help me get focused again.

Mom is coming to stay with us this weekend, with the goal of kicking us into gear baby-wise. We have a lot of stuff to sort through, organizing and cleaning to do, washing and rearranging and planning. Most of it's related to how messy our day-to-day lives are and how behind we are on some tasks. There just isn't enough time. We rarely watch TV, so it's not that we're lazy couch potatoes. But keeping up with work and child and basic household chores keeps us busy enough that there never seems to be time for cleaning out the basement or hauling everything out of our closet to reorganize so that things fit properly. Or, heck, mopping the floors on a regular basis and getting the dog to the vet. I have no idea what we're going to do when we have two kids creating chaos. Well-meaning friends laugh evilly and say helpful things like "you know the work load increases exponentially. It's not 1+1=2, it's more like 1+1=20."

And then the refrigerator breaks, and I start to think I should just put caution tape across the front porch for awhile. Say, 5 years. Maybe 10.

So how about you? Is YOUR refrigerator running?

Comments

[Meredith]

I love that Otto said that he was "cross" at you. So sweet.

[Meredith]

*ahem* I meant "cross" with you

[demonic1]

My fridge is running, thanks.

You're lucky Otto wants to do it himself.

If we would have started closing doors and putting Logan in his car seat he would have let us- servants that we are.

[Ane]

We got a cleaning service to do the cleaning once a month. We also can't keep up anymore. A 3 year old and 4.5 year old just are to hard to keep up after.