A Day in the Life

Danny began work on Monday with a week of orientation. The first three days of orientation took place with the agency he will be working for, and today he had orientation at the police academy. During his agency orientation he had the opportunity to go on some "ride-alongs," where he goes on patrol with an officer and shadows him or her while he or she is on duty. Danny went on ride alongs in Tallahassee where he answered calls for the following: fighting roommates; a child who was beat up by neighborhood bullies; a gang hanging out in front of a gas station and detering customers; a drunk college student who shoplifted a flip flop (this resulted in an amusing but pathetic foot chase). At the new agency, the calls were the following: an old lady fell down the stairs; an old lady had a stroke; an old lady was angry that an iguana pooped on her car. Clearly, I like Danny's newer job better. But not as much as I liked having him home.

Today began well. (Much better than yesterday, anyway. Yesterday was TERRIBLE). Abuela was in a good mood, Dominic was in a good mood. I slept enough to be in a good mood myself. We played in the house and read books. Dominic was climbing and flipping and swinging all over abuela's walker so she suggested I take him to the park. The 10:30 sun was blindingly bright, but not being in Tallahassee, the heat was still manageable. We took Dominic's tricycle and I, with Noemie on my hip, started around the block. Shortly after the halfway point, Dominic decided he was too tired to continue. I would advance to the nearest shady spot of sidewalk and wait for him to decide he had enough energy to push forward. It took us quite a while to make it home and we were all tired (and sweaty) by the time we arrived. Noemie went down for her nap soon after while Dominic ate a snack. I put him to bed at noon, answered email, and received my childhood friend Katie, who came by to visit.

I went to check on Dominic after Katie left and found the door to his room locked. I didn't worry about it, assuming he knew how to unlock it, but a few minutes later I heard him tinkering with the knob. I walked over to the door and tried to explain to him how to unlock it but he didn't understand. He'd stick his fingers under the door, and call me. It was very cute. Like the scene in Dumbo where everyone cries... I sat in front of the door with a paper clip forever trying to disengage the lock. I was a little bit concerned that I would have to wait till Danny came home in 4 hours... As I was getting ready to look up the police non-emergency number, Dominic popped the lock and came out to "go pee pee" at the same time as Noemie woke up. I set him free to go about his business and went to take Noemie out of the crib. She said she wanted to go pee pee too so I took her diaper off and went to the bathroom where Dominic was looking at his reflection and not so much peeing. And smelling mysteriously of apricot. So I carried him off the toilet and put Noemie on it at which point naked Dominic made a break for the front door. I threw the pee pee diapers in the sink, hoping I'd remember to get back to them later. Leaving Noemie on the potty I ran out to grab Dominic and upon doing so noticed that he was sticky. Really sticky. Sticky from his hair, down his arms, down his legs. Going back into my room I found my very favorite lipgloss- the one I tried to buy an extra tube of a month ago at CVS and couldn't find another just like it- completely empty. The contents of my purse and my wallet were emptied on the bed and gloss was everywhere from the credit cards to the camera to the comforter. As I'm taking this in I hear what I've come now to recognize as the sound of Noemie playing with the wine bottles in the wine rack and off I go again. I grabbed Dominic and gave him a quick shower, and almost literally threw him back into the bed as I cleared the comforter and the gooey things and dressed Noemie. I started the laundry, located missing phones, surveyed the fridge and started preparing lunch while Noemie tried on different tupperware bowl helmets and practiced her Miss America wave. As I turned to put lunch in the microwave I caught Dominic out of the corner of my eye tiptoe-ing across the dining room doorway. I put Dominic back in bed and gave him a stern talking-to before running back out to rescue Amy's CD rack from disembowelment by Noemie who is always excited by such things.

With Noemie locked into her highchair and lasagna in hand, I set about quickly to get her water and my own lunch to keep the messes to a minimum. But the fridge's water spigot decided to shoot in multiple directions, squirting water down the side of the fridge and onto the floor. And I couldn't find my keys as I was running around frantically looking for the diaper bag that had the extra bib. By the time I got to my own lunch it was cold and I was exhausted. I looked up from my food in my first moment of rest to see Dominic peeking out from behind the bedroom door. For almost 10 minutes, the entirety of my lunch, I stared at him silently, and he stared back. As I finished my food, he began meandering slowly towards the table with a book in his mouth and a guilty smile. He quietly climbed into his highchair and strapped himself in. Dominic was supposed to be waking up from his nap by this time and his lunch was due so I gave in and prepared his food. It was at this moment that I heard car doors open and close. I made a mad dash for the back of the house to take care of those diapers in the sink, the gobby messes of wallet-stuff and the remains of shattered plant matter from Amy's dried bouquet that Dominic launched at Noemie that morning. Meanwhile, my mom's sister, Mimi, entered the house with abuela, whom she had taken to the doctor and to run errands. I walked into the kitchen with a tiny sense of triumph that I had given the appearance of a mom in control- that all was in order. A sense that dissapated in a breath as I witnessed the tower of tuppoerware containers stacked neatly by Mimi as she passed through the kitchen. I had forgotten.

I realized that, because it was Mimi and not any other member of my family, that I was going to be spared a lecture, but the defeat warranted a bowl of consolatory ice cream nevertheless. I know what you're thinking... I already had a dove icrecream bar as a breakfast-dessert and three oreos for my lunch's appetizer. It's true. And that's why my love handles are, every day, resembling more and more an innertube. I hope to be "home" soon.