"Later" So Rarely Comes

Between our respective work schedules, the demands of our two small children and the responsibilities of home, the Hubbs and I don't always get a lot of time to have an actual conversation with each other.

We try our best, at the end of our work day, over supper, in between the constant needs of one child or the other, to engage in some sort of meaningful conversation that includes a recount of each other's work day. Have you ever tried to reiterate a story to another person over top of an extremely and purposely loud one year old? A one year old that takes your face between her two adorable little hands, staring her beautiful, intense brown eyes directly into yours yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" at the top of her lungs to ensure that you pay attention to her and not her father? It's awesome, let me tell you!

At some point, the Hubbs or I will look at the other with that defeated-parent look and say, "I'm sorry, we'll have to continue this later." And "later" so rarely comes.

To add to the challenge, our children have different bed times. We tried with all our parental might and will to get the two on the same schedule so Hubbs and I could expect - all things being equal - an evening together each night. What an exercise in futility that was! Forcing toddlers to go to bed is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreo cookies - it's not going to work. So, we gave into what we can only assume are their respective circadian rhythms and turned our focus into the one-on-one time we get to spend with each during their respective bed times.

And it is a lovely time.

For our son, whose bed time isn't until around 9pm, we get to have time with him the way we did before his sister came along. He loves it, we cherish it.

For our daughter, well it's usually my esteemed pleasure to follow her into her room, cuddle, rock and sing to her before putting her into her crib for the night.

These are the moments and we take full advantage of them.

When 9pm rolls around and we get our little man into bed, it's usually difficult for Hubbs and I to stay up much longer. And, I have this nagging Young and the Restless obsession that I can't shake and usually take the time between 9pm and 10pm to indulge in. Yes, yes, yes, I can hear your objections - but I am an individual as well as a mother and a wife and me-time is as precious as Hubbs-and-I time.

So, after I fast forward through most of the story lines in Y&R in which I'm not interested, I'm usually upstairs and in our bed by 9:45pm. 9 times out of 10, Hubbs and I share some brief exchange and one or both of us drifts off in mid-sentence.

However, every so often, we enter dangerous territory and before we know it, it's midnight and we've been chatting away the entire time. Some times these 2-hours are used to hash out arguments, some times the conversation is more on the fun and playful side, regardless, it puts us both into a full-on zombie state the following morning.

Last night was such a night, and this morning was such a morning. And to make matters worse, I wasn't able to eat or have a cup of coffee because I had to head to the lab for a follow-up glucose tolerance test after an 8 to 12 hour fast. Good times!

This morning was particularly fun because our little guy decided he had to have a shower with mommy. Even though Hubbs put our little man in before I'd even left our bed, had already finished the soap and sponge down and washed little man's hair, my wonderfully independent little guy refused to leave the shower. It was epic teenager action! Just standing there with his back to the running water, enjoying it! So, I squeezed in and did an abbreviated version of my normal routine, whisked him out of the shower, into a towel and diaper and into our cozy, warm bed to watch a morning show while I continued my routine. I'd barely began the rest of my morning routine before our other little sweetie awoke and was looking to be retrieved from her crib - I was very excited to discover she'd peed right through her diaper and pyjamas so I had to quickly change her (while she howled at the sheer torture of being cared for) and inserted her into our bed beside her big brother so I could buy myself enough time to finish my routine.

Hubbs was downstairs making breakfast and getting the kids' clothes ready for application. He retrieved the children and off we all went!

Once again, yay for the team because even though he and I wanted nothing more than to crawl back in bed and sleep off the 2-hr quality time the night before, we pulled off the morning without a meltdown or anyone putting their pants on backwards and inside out. A definite win!