Sunday Evening Post...er...Saturday

I would have to say that a toddler is like a Ferrari. No, not red, sporty, and capable of going from 0-120mph in 90 seconds (wait, no, that DOES sound like a toddler) but that a toddler is like a very very expensive and finely tuned piece of machinery. You get one small thing out of whack and that's all she wrote. Motor oil and transmission fluid all over the highway. So, what am i talking about? Previously noted shifts in routine aside (and the perpetual state of "teethinghood"), Felix had a much too short nap today. Yep, game over man. Even if we spend time on ourselves, make plans for ourselves, and do as good a job as we can to make sure that we remain autonomous, there is just no escaping that parents really are just the pit crew for the toddler-mobiles that we brought into the world. (Sorry about all the automotive metaphor...not sure what that's all about) When his schedule gets messed up, it impacts our schedules as well. Its not like you can just say, "Oh, well, I'll just do the same stuff I normally do while he is napping and we'll get back on his scheduled when it usually happens." Uh huh. Good luck with that.

I think the problem is that as adults, we are USED to operating at various levels of restedness and we have learned (or at least how to compensate for) our limits in those cases. Toddlers, on the other hand, are fresh and expect to operate at peak efficiency all the time until they suddenly stop and pass into a short regenerative coma like a nap or a bed time. Then they wake, re-calibrate, and off they go at full speed ahead. They have not developed the levels of activity us analogs have. Toddlers are still cutting edge and digital.

Anyway, needless to say Felix has had a rough day and so have we all. The past week has been rough due to his escalated teething (actually have one or two more teeth half-way emerged) and cold symptoms (snotty nose) which are compounded by the heat coming on at night which makes this place dry as hell. Andrea's sick, I'm not the greatest (but not too bad) and Felix is cranky at night and early morning, but otherwise happy as can be. It's a lot harder to deal with now that he only has one nap. Back when he did two naps a day you had a shot at resetting him with that second nap if the first one was missed or cut short. On one nap, the only reset opportunity comes with a good night's sleep. I hear that still exists somewhere on this earth.

Also, only a parent can truly understand what "sleep like a baby" means. Really.