Early Literacy

This story starts at 2 a.m. in the morning as they say.  Devin took a while to fall asleep last night after I changed his diaper about 10 p.m.  I was OK with that.  Then he woke up about midnight.  OK.  One thirty.  Not so great, but I can live with it.  Two a.m.  Awake.  Not needing to nurse or having pooped.  Just awake.  Probably tummy sore, but not passing gas or pooping.  Try the pacifier.  Try any number of positions which during the day might induce sleep.  Give up and turn on the computer.  By 3 a.m. he was starting to fall asleep again.  And I think he slept until about six, which is some kind of record.  But still, I missed some kind of window during which I could trick my body and brain into believing I had gotten some kind of reasonable sleep.  I woke up feeling not OK about life in general.

I got a morning nap while Liam was at preschool, but when I listened to Allen's message about needing to go to a meeting at 2 this afternoon I felt that even a relatively brief stint with both boys in the middle of the afternoon might be a recipe for disaster.  Lets be honest.  I cried about it.  At least one screaming meemy poop notwithstanding Devin still seemed a little fussy.  I hadn't had much to eat all day and even the thought of eating wasn't sitting well.  I wasn't doing well in the self-care arena, let alone the other-care sphere of existence.

So I hatched a scheme.  When Allen and Liam got home at about 12:30 I could take a shower and eat lunch and then we could all load into the van and Allen could drop us off at the library and pick us up after his meeting.  It could have worked out great, except that they got home closer to one, Allen and I didn't communicate clearly about what we wanted to do and we forgot the parking permit and our cell phones.  Apparently my super powers were on the blink.

But I was flexible.  I dropped Allen at his office with instructions to call the library and ask for the children's desk.  Everyone knows me there and they would come and tell me that he was ready to go.  Then I could pick him up and I wouldn't be stuck wondering when he was getting home and he wouldn't be stuck walking and getting tired out.  Except that since I was last at the library they hired a new person in the children's area.  But I explained the situation and she was very understanding.  So finally Liam and I could actually get down to the business of being at the library.  They had some knew construction equipment themed activities out.  Here are some pictures.  We managed to use the timing feature on the camera.  Officially, its Devin's first trip to the library.

Liam worked very intently on lacing up this shovel (?) before discovering that each piece of equipment had another piece that could be laced with it.  He redid that one piece, but was then done.  He then realized that the head of children's services, who has become a great friend of ours, was in her office and he wanted to go see her.  She was very happy to meet Devin and Liam enjoyed playing with the blocks she keeps in her office.

We did manage to pick Allen up without too much trouble.  We had to go into his building to let him know we were there.  Liam informed me that he knows the building "Like the back of my head."  When we were walking back out with Allen Liam told us that he "tricked" me about not needing to use the bathroom at the library because he wanted to use the one in his dad's building.  I'm not actually sure how far ahead he had thought this through since he seemed surprised that we were going in to get Allen.  But I still tried to make the point - tricking is not good!

So that's how an interrupted night of sleep led to an afternoon out.  Hopefully it's a good sign that I'm starting to feel like going out is worth the extra effort in terms of the boost I get from seeing people and being in different places.  Now I really need to rest!