Roseola, you suck. After my kid was completely fantastic for her grandparents all weekend, I was feeling pretty good about life. Not an angry word was exchanged and despite my MIL wearing three-inch pumps everywhere so um, walking wasn't an option, we certainly got around. Most MIL moment of the trip-we're driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway and I mention how I would like to stop for apples. "yes" in her heavily accented Spanish English she said, "if we see a sign that says "French Pastries", pull over." Needless to say, such a sign did not appear on the backroads of Virginia. Other favourite moment: we drove to Danville, VA purposefully to see where AH's sister lived 10 years ago and videotape in front of the house she rented there, so they can show her when they get back. My family just does not do things like that. The baby was a perfect angel every minute and I think we got some glowing grandparent reports.
But yesterday, after AH dropped them off at the airport, she started to get pretty sleepy and spent most of the day napping. By dinnertime, she has a fever and we know she can't go to daycare. I had so much to do today at work, but I stayed home with a rash-covered, feverish, miserable baby who did not sleep a second and could never be put down and also, did not like it when you sat down. Oh my lord - hardest - day - ever. Seriously, I lost my mind around 11 am and it hasn't come back yet. I blubbed for a good 20 minutes in the rocking chair about how much work I needed to do, both work and homework, how frumpy I felt, how much being a Mom sucks sometimes and how, holy jesus, there would never ever be a moment again when I really got to put myself first. Which sucked the life right out of me. As my spotted, crusted child continued to howl. The only things that saved me today were watching "Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers", a Les Blank film my Mom used to regularly project on our living room wall when she was a film librarian - I hadn't seen it in maybe 20 years and suddenly my whole life made sense - cooking, local food, Werner Herzog, the Bay Area - maybe all those loves started right there. Also, and this is going to seem cruel, but Simone found a wasabi pea on the floor and crammed it into her mouth before I could stop her and the look on her face as she tasted her first wasabi, while alarming, was still one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It's official, I'm a bad mother.
Also, it would have been my Dad's 59th birthday today. I wonder if the psychic cloud of doom from that occasion is partially responsible for the worst-day-ever.