Thursday, February 9, 2012

Driving Through Chicago

Right after I got out of college, I went on a road trip with a friend.  We drove from Minnesota to New York, and we drove through Chicago to get there.  Now, as this and layovers in O’Hare have been my only visits to Chicago, I mean no disrespect to what I’m sure is a lovely city by saying that after a while, my friend and I decided that driving through Chicago must be Circle of Hell overlooked by Dante only because it hadn’t existed back then.  Driving through Chicago is a black hole that cannot be escaped—it just goes on and on and on.  And on.

I feel like I’m driving through Chicago right now.  I have been working on the stockinette portion of Paper Dolls forever.  I will never be done with the stockinette portion of Paper Dolls.  Normally I don’t mind, and stockinette always flows faster than I think it will, plus it’s kind of breezy, like paddling downstream, but Not This Time.  Because Time Has Stopped.

So there’s that.  And my daughter has been replaced by an alien.  You know how Willow had a great appetite, loved all meals, and would try anything?  Yeah, now we drink only milk, and eat only raisins and pears.  No other food is acceptable.  Oh, except house plants.  She’ll eat house plants.  “No dinner!  Just miiiiiiilllllkkkkkk!”  She will not sleep.  (She was up for another bajillion hours the other night, and then refused to nap on top of that.)  She will not speak to her father (last night, she screamed and shoved him away for trying to assist her in getting her pjs on).   She will not let me out of her sight (this morning, I was not allowed to get dressed after showering.  Screams, because I wanted to put her down so as to not be naked in full view of the neighbors.)


I know that this is a phase, as all things are.  It is a phase brought on by fighting a cold, by getting a tooth, by being two.   But dear God, it feels like it’s never going to end. 

6 comments:

kate said...

Hey, at least she eats pears. She's one up on Francie. Actually, Francie will also eat pretzels. But other than that, it's milk and raisins all the way.

Easy O said...

Having driven to Chicago from Minneapolis many a time, I can attest to the gridlock-combined-with-panic feeling of driving into Chicago. There's a certain feeling of panic I associate with it, matched only by the LA freeway. Hang in there!

lelah said...

I, too, am the Mom of a very spirited 2 year old. You have to admire their inner strength, right? ;) I always reamind myself "At least my boy will always stand up for his beliefs!" Oy vey!

Kelly said...

Before I got to the very end of the post I was going to ask, "Is she two?" I'm right there with you!!!! I have a two year old boy and we go through similar trying times. Don't worry, it gets better and then it gets worse again before you've barely realized that things had improved! Hang in there. :)

Izzy said...

Yep, I'm with you too. I used to pride myself that my 'just 2 week's younger than Willow' boy would eat all kinds of strange things, but he now pretty much refuses to eat anything apart from spagetti hoops, fruit and ice cream! He's also getting very spirited!

I'm impressed you can get any knitting done at all with the lack of sleep! I'm in the process of knitting the easiest cowl in the world, but it seems to be taking me months!!!!

Rachie said...

Oh, good lord. I happened upon your site through ravelry, and it's like you're writing about my child. She's just two and has ALL OF THE ABOVE symptoms of being two, down to the fighting her father over pjs.

She has come out of the other side of that sleep nightmare phase though - I thought mine had phased out naps altogether, but she's just phased them back in again, together with going to sleep at a reasonable time. It's like Christmas. The no nap/late sleeping phase lasted about 3 weeks.

Hope that helps!