Me = Sitter

Milla got better!  Blessedly fast, actually.  Like I mentioned, Baby Darth Vader disappeared a couple hours after they gave her a steroid shot at the doctor's office, and never reappeared.  On Tuesday Milla was still clearly feeling sick, and she fussed and clung to me most of the day, but by Wednesday morning she was doing much better.  Now she's basically back to normal, with just a tiny bit of leftover congestion and the occasional cough to keep the congestion moving on out.  (Gross.)

I know it's been said ad infinitum by every woman in my position with a sick baby, but MAY-UN am I glad Milla is nursing.  The poor sore-throated girl would not eat or drink anything for four days, and if she hadn't been willing to nurse I don't know what I would have done.  I mean, besides tried harder to get her to eat and drink, duh.  But it was so much simpler this way.

My mom didn't end up coming to visit because she caught the flu from my dad.  I was bummed to miss her, but obviously it was better for her not to come and give us the flu.  Milla was pretty much recovered by the time Bryan left Wednesday morning anyway, and 36 hours was not so bad.  It wasn't so great, either, but we made it.

Right now I'm resisting the call of Farm Frenzy in order to blog (because I have, uh, so many important things to say) and Bryan is downstairs purging the basement.  We've got these awesome shelves down there that he and my brother-in-law built a couple years ago, but we never organized them, just kind of shoved stuff on them haphazardly, and then more stuff collected and started spilling over onto the floor and before we knew it we had an enormous Pile of Stuff, practically unnavigable.  We've talked for months about organizing it, the same way you talk about doing anything that's beneficial but not especially fun.  "We should do more volunteer work."  "We should read the classics."  "We should clean underneath the fridge."

Maybe YOU think about doing those kinds of things and then immediately go do them (In which case why are you wasting time reading blogs instead of being productive?  Don't you feel bad about this?) but I do not.  I am such a practiced underachiever/procrastinator that I no longer even feel guilt about not doing those things.  This is who I am.  I am a non-doer.  I do the things that are actually important and essential to my family's well-being but the rest of it, eh.  Who needs the stress of self-created imperatives, you know?

We've never explicitly discussed it, but I've observed that my husband has seemed to be on the same page with me in this area.  I don't do things; he doesn't do things.  It works.  Until the other night when he suddenly decided that he was going to make it his Own Personal Project to purge and organize the Stuff in our basement.  And he has since preceded to actually do it.

I'm not complaining about this.  I do want the basement organized and I'm glad it's getting done.  But I feel the way I did back in 1999 when he graduated from high school and I had another year of the old grind.  I'm left behind now.  He's moved on.  He is now a Doer.  And I'm sitting here with my computer on my lap, surfing the Internet for a new handbag.  Perhaps I should get off my butt and go help him.

Perhaps I should do it tomorrow.

Comments

[Southern Comfortable]

Oh, man. I'm so glad she's feeling better. Sounds like no fun for Milla OR you. Definitely one thing I do not look forward to about being a parent.

[Jen]

I'm glad she's better!

I am a one time doer of projects. I will put the stuff on the shelf once and then let it fend for itself.

[Duchess]

My husband is almost always the doer. I did, however in early January go on a huge "get all the junk that is cluttering the house" cleaning spree, but don't worry I am now back to sitting.

[Jane Lebak]

My husband assures me that procrastination is its own reward. For example, we needed to fix something about the wall in the bathroom. For two years. Then we put an addition on our house and during the course of the project, the contractors needed to run a pipe through that wall in the bathroom, and *they* put it back together when they were done, and we no longer need to do it.

Like Duchess, btw, I go on sprees and do things for the house or for us, but most of the time I'm a non-doer too. :)

[Jeanne]

I'm half and half. I wait until I can no longer stand it anymore and then I pass on to action.

Both my husband I are great starters of projects. We are not so great finishers of projects.

[Meika]

Ahhh, the Doer won't last, not if he isn't one by nature. It's just a phase.

I wish we were Doers. Sometimes we are, maybe... but right now our next project is Finishing the Basement. Guaranteed to make an unDoer out of the most dedicated Doer.

[Lisa]

I'm definitely a do-er. My husband is not. He will if I prod him, and then he feels good about getting things done, but left to his own devices, nothing would get done, ever. Adding baby to this mix has, of course, frustrated my attempts at do-ing, but I accomplish a little at a time, and that's good enough for me.

[Christiana]

We are both usually non-doers, but lately (nesting? I'm 35 weeks pregnant) we have both be DOERS. It's really useful to be in the same place together at the same time, and occasionally we try and motivate each other when one is in a doing mood.

[Tommy]

Arwen! Totally off topic, but I'm posting this comment from Safari on an iPod touch!!!!!!!

[Anne Cecilia]

Hi Arwen! I'm so glad to see you and Camilla are doing well. I used to comment occasionally, but haven't in a while. She is so cute, and I'm so glad Darth Vader is a thing of the past.

I've got a little boy on the way and am now reading with new intensity your posts. I was particularly interested in your post on the fact that Milla is still nursing. I am feeling a little sad lately that my mother-in-law is not in the least supportive of the fact that I want to nurse, and even activey discourages me occasionally by reminding me of the one woman she knows who "wasn't able" to nurse. I have politely responded every time that my mother managed to nurse seven children, but she persists.

Any advice on how to deal with something like this. I feel like she's going to be uncomfortable being around us when he's nursing. It's almost as if she thinks it's strange.

Hey, let Bryan do his projects if he wants to. He's in a zone. He's probably diggin' it.

Anne