We moved into a house back in October, and yet there’s still a lot of work to be done (primarily in “my” room, where the boxes have accumulated). The holidays and abrupt trips out of town have resulted in this room getting neglected for far too long, which is why I’ve been looking forward to MLK Day for weeks. Finally, a day that would allow me to work on the house without wife or child to distract or summon me elsewhere.
Well, imagine my dismay at discovering that Miles’s daycare was actually closed today and that not only would I not have the house to myself, Jaclyn also wouldn’t be around to take care of Miles so I could at least achieve some degree or progress. It was a bit of a letdown.
But then I woke up this morning, dropped Jaclyn off at work, and Miles and I were left together. No verbal agreement was made, but the two of us quickly came to a silent agreement — today was going to be FUN.
We started with some Sesame Street, which I put on for Miles while I attempted to at least empty the dishwasher. He quickly became more interested in what I was doing in the kitchen. Now, the kitchen has been a favorite location of his lately. Meanwhile, we’ve been trying to encourage Miles to bolster himself on things, climb to his knees, and attempt to just be generally less lazy with regards to learning to walk. We even got him a small workout step to help with this. All of which gave me an idea…you want to come in the kitchen? LEARN TO WALK.
In fairness, Miles was crawling all over the place today. As cabin fever started to set in, Miles started heading for the front door.
“Where are you going, Miles?” I asked.
He turned and waved to me before continuing to clamber towards the door.
“You’re leaving??”
Miles once again turned back to me. “Bah,” he said, waving again.
Clearly, Miles wanted to get out of the house. I took the hint and, more than ready for lunch, took Miles to Taco Bell, dismissing the inherent diaper-related dangers of such a trip.
Fully sated, we followed lunch with a brisk walk (the temperature, if not the walking, was brisk) along the greenway, which gave Miles a chance to test drive his newly-converted (and recently recovered) stroller.
We finished out our day together with playtime and vintage Mickey Mouse cartoons. Did I get the housecleaning time I was looking for today? Not remotely, but in retrospect it was silly of me to even want that given how much more rewarding it was having a day with my son.
