Would You Come

Here's an email I just sent out to Moms I promised to hook up with this summer.....

Dear Everyone:

It is a nice sunny day today and promises to be tomorrow, too. As you are among the many mamas I yahoo'ed about hooking up with for drinks in my yard on sunny Friday afternoons -- a bit on an explanation.

Where did your invite go? It is likely the last sunny near summer Friday afternoon tomorrow and so far you have not once heard me beckon you to the lawn for a martini or g & t. What gives?

Well, it appears to me now that this was the most naive plan I made of all my naive plan making about being a mother of 2. (Sort of like thinking I could do without daycare, ha!) Every Wednesday or so I start the list in my mind of a.) how I should really throw caution to the wind and ask mamas and babies over on Friday afternoon and then b.) that my family is disaster by the end of the week and really, no one needs to see that. Besides, E. is sleeping (or maybe not, yuck-yuck) in the afternoon so when would I make the invite for? After nap?? When is that exactly these days????

Further... I have my on again / off again contractor sawdusting up said back yard so where would I put all these mamas? All these babies??

Basically, it is pandemonium over here. Ever since I returned home, and then since the birth of our little nuthatch, I have been lookin' for the new normal. Trying to work out a system, you know how I love a system! But, it eludes me. The first four weeks I just wrote off due to the whole tyranny of the newborn thing. Then I had 4 weeks of toddler backlash. Since then I have toyed with 7 more days of system-seeking but at this point as Mr. Cash says, Foo it! There will be no system, routine is beyond fluid.

So what is it like over here?

Well my baby sleeps pretty well overnight and my girl, too. I start my day at 5AM and then me and the infant are dozey humans until about 9 AM. Daughter requires action by 9:30AM so we try to provide for this by heading outside to do stuff until about 11:30, which is lunchtime. Afternoon nap for the girl can commence after lunch; teething and contractors permitting -- why did no one remind me of two-year-molars when I decided to birth a second human when my first offspring was 22 months old????? In the afternoon I roll with the punches on who is -- and who is not -- sleeping or pooping or playing. I guess I could receive guests in there sometime around 3:30.. if they understand a cranky, or not cranky, girl might require more attention than they do at any moment -- but usually no later than 4pm. -- If such guests do not come I would normally be folding a lot of laundry and be thinking about the best possible meal to get in the oven in 12 minutes or less between 4:15 and 4:30... or failing this playin' the Little Bear card and having until 5pm to prepare such meal; nursing of infant, tantrums and fingerpainting permitting.

This routine -- or lack thereof -- has been why I haven't had people over the way I wanted. It is a great disappointment to me that I haven't seen scads of mamas this summer. Let's face it I have got a very impressive - nay impeccable - roster of maternity types scattered across my email address book. I wish I could draw up pretty handmade card invites, blender up some margaritas with seasonal fruits, look like my hair was washed today and call it a party. But I can't. So if I just call it a party tell you to bring your own beer or wine, there might be pizza or a bag of chips if you're lucky, and that anytime between 3:45 and 6:00 works for us tell me -- would you come?

Love from mo-wo