Tiring day

I stayed up way too late last night preparing my first-ever PowerPoint presentation about the law school to the marketing folks at Willamette. Result: I'm going on five hours of sleep right now. Mama is tired.

Today as we were getting ready to leave the house I bent down to Rachel's level and said, "Rachel? Mommy stayed up very late last night working. I'm very tired today. Can you please be patient with me?" She answered "yeah," but I don't think she really understood.

That was tested later today when traffic made me 25 minutes late for preschool and I raced home with Rachel, changed clothes and was getting ready to drive her to the park (ugh, I'd rather walk but it was so late and she wanted to go to the park so badly even though it was cold that I figured we'd just take the car) when she asked if she could put on her swimsuit and go in the fountain. "No, honey, it's too cold," I told her. She pleaded and pleaded but I stood my ground (although I did call Drew for a consultation, but he was finishing up a radio show he was on tonight). She started whining and crying, and I said, "if you keep that up, we won't go at all. Would you like me to give you a timeout?" She shook her head.

I went back inside and then came out again, and asked her if she realized we weren't going to go in the fountain. She said yes and seemed quite chipper as we drove to the park.

"I'm sorry I whined and cried," she said as we pulled up to Grant Park.

"Thank you for the apology, sweetie," I answered. "I really appreciate it."

Then we both got out of the car and she immediately put her hand in mine as we walked the short distance to the swings.

"I'm holding your hand because I love you," she said.

I was so touched.

"Well, that's great because I love you too!" I said, and she ran off to play.