I'm in one of those moods/phases where I'm a bit angry and sad.  The reason?  My kid and work.  It really stinks to be frustrated with work all by itself, but when I have to drop my kid off and be away from her all day to instead immerse myself in frustrations it pushes some buttons.

I'll freely admit jealousy of the women who get to stay with their kids.  Not that I understand how it could happen for people in lines of work where a few years away equates to never being able to find work again - plus, you know, bills and whatnot.

My mind turns to the math.  She's awake for 77 hours a week I get at most 37 of those with her.  It really stinks.  I know she's also getting an education and that even if i were with her now all day every day the time would come when school started and we'd be in a similar position.  It's all just going so fast.

Because my brain likes to torture me, I even start fretting about the start of the week early in the day on Sunday, causing me to feel like I'm losing even more time.  By 10am on Mondays my stomach is twisted.

I'm holding onto the "this too shall pass" stance.  I know we all go through these phases with work, but this one has been bad and longer than many.  It's time to pass.

What a busy day.  I walked out of the house shortly after 7am for our normal Saturday routine (Starbucks and Little Gym).  We were back at 10:20 or so for a quick feeding and back out the door at 11am to get to a first birthday party.  I can't believe I'm attending first birthday parties.  This is for a little gal to a couple that are friends with My Favorite Egg.

It was quite the nice Alice in Wonderland themed affair.  Since it was in Irwin I had asked about visiting with Avery's grandparents.  Nonno was available, so we went and hung out.  We picked some flowers, we fed the chickens, and we headed to... McDonald's at Nonno's suggestion to check out the play area.

I was a bit leery, I mean the play area is meant for older kids - even at Chick-fil-a and we're talking McDonald's, the Walmart of  fast food play areas.  We were in there for maybe 15 minutes and Avery was crying three times.  The first time after she quickly and easily climbed up the stairs on her own and was headed towards the slide.  I climbed up (thank goodness they make them sturdy enough to hold someone my size) to find a little girl hugging her that told me her brother was "in a hurry and accidentally stepped on her hair".  Oy.  I got her down the slide and followed behind her to find her at the bottom crying, but this time I know why - man the static electricity!  zap zap zap.  Back on the ground they had this huge Big Mac in that room w/ a carpeted track around it.  She started running circles and a little boy started behind her.  After two laps I should have trusted my instinct that this kid was going to push her because at the end of lap three he sure did.  Not enough to knock her over or anything, but enough to make her cry.

We got back home a few minutes late for bed time with a zonked kiddo in the back.  I admit, I enjoy her in that state as it means she'll be willing to cuddle.  It was a really nice last 20 minutes of the day.

We're back! Once again we headed off on a cruise ship for a week.  This time we drove to Bayonne to leave on Anthem of the Seas for a week visiting Bermuda and Boston.  Vacations are definitely different with a little one that naps for a couple of hours mid-day, so this one was a bit low key and I don't have a ton of activities to talk about (and there is lots of fun activities onboard this class of ship).

It was pleasant enough travels although a bit too cold to get as much use out of our balcony as I would have liked.  Then again, two decks below our balcony was a smoker area, so that made it less than desirable to sit out anyhow.

I fought a sore throat again all stinking week.  It is one that was negligible during the day but got pretty painful into the evening and overnight.  It made me cough and felt like I had hot sauce dripping down my throat which made me want to swallow all the more.  Even moving my tongue certain ways hurt like I had strained a muscle.

I will note that we took Avery to the pink sand beaches while in Bermuda and we headed to the aquarium in Boston.  We probably waited an hour and a half (easy) in line for the aquarium just to get in and good glory was it packed.  The walk from the bus terminal we rode to was quite pleasant, I could imagine walking about Boston a few weeks later in the year and it being quite lovely.  It was a bit cool and still not yet in bloom.  We had a good time.  It was nice to get away, for sure, I needed that.

We did come back to leaves popping out on the trees - and the grass going crazy, so I was busy mowing/weeding today since I had one more day off.  This is one clump of activities I'd rather do without in the summer.  I hate being stained green with dirt under my nails and feeling my sinuses rebel against the cut grass.

After the work around the house was done we headed out for a bite to eat and a few stops (Big Lots and Aldis - I'll pick up from Giant Eagle tomorrow since I had little here to make meals with after being away).

On our trip back towards my place on the highway we had a bit of a scare.  My Favorite Egg (MFE) said "oh, a deer, no that's a dog".  I can be heard in the video from his car saying "no no no no".  Fortunately the dog got out across both lanes (65mph highway) as both we and the lane beside us tried to screech to a halt.  Well the tractor trailer two cars back in the right lane didn't and hit the one car there, pushing him probably in part into the car beside us and into us.

MFE got us off of the road safely and in the grand scheme without any worries.  His car definitely has some damage, but we just had enough to shake us up a little (or at least me - Avery didn't even seem to notice and she just wanted to go home as it was her bedtime).  To  my understanding everyone was okay and we believe the dog made it safely across and up the hill on the other side. Thankful and blessed.

More stress and drama - calls and questions.  Now we wait.  This and some other issues have been heavy on my mind.  I also have a little girl that has had a cough since Friday, has been working to keep diaper rash at bay, and now she had a couple rather loose diapers today.  I need more sleep than what I've been getting, I assure you of that.