"I WOCKET!....I VOWCANO!"

Today, as I struggled to pay attention at a school meeting I was reminded that my life is currently not my own. Not wanting to spend $40-50 on a sitter, I brought my little one along, thinking surely the bag full of Etch-a-sketch, small cars and trucks and the lunchbox we packed full of his choice of snacks would keep him quiet. He wasn’t hungry for the snacks (seeing that it was only 8:30 and he’d just had breakfast), the truck he most wanted to play with made a (loud) whirring sound whenever pulled back, and when he realized bellowing “I VOWCANO! I WOCKET!” in a room filled with attentive moms elicited some giggles (and stink eye) we quickly excused ourselves. This seems to happen to me a lot these days. At first I was really annoyed that I learned nothing about the reading process between K and 1st grade. I was in a resentful mood that perfectly matched today’s foul weather. Then I ran into a friend in town who said she was embracing the fact that nothing was going as she’d planned today and that once she did that, she was much happier. Hmmm, I’d never thought of that tact. Instead I was slowly working myself into a lather because my day was totally off kilter. The meeting was videotaped so working parents could get the information too. My kid is two (quite two). Of course he’d rather be bouncing around at a gym class than a meeting full of moms. When I consider that he’s my job these days, I realize it’s ok for me to borrow one of those meeting DVDs too. Gina was a good reality check. I am going to try to laugh times like these off more. My life may not be my own these days, but it’s a short window when my child is completely dependent on me.