Exhausted

Weekends are hard, and Sundays are especially hard. There's no babysitter helping me out, although sometimes my parents give me a hand with Simon. Michael is constantly and eternally busy, so on any given day he's good for taking care of Simon for maybe 45 minutes at the most. Sunday I'm pretty much with Simon every minute of the day. I probably got about 30-to-45 minutes to myself today, and not all at once. Simon is now asleep, and here is my free time.

I feel guilty for so enthusiastically looking forward to Simon's bedtime, but there it is. Simon isn't the play-quietly-on-his-own type so much, so I'm always on the move, trying to keep up with him, trying to find new ways to pass the time. Simon hates being in the car, which makes it even harder to find entertaining things to do.

Today I forced him into the car for a short trip to the mall. I figured it would be fun to look at all the people--and babies. I also figured Simon would want to walk around and look at all the stuff. I didn't bring a stroller (Simon doesn't really like being in it anyway) or a baby carrier because I was sure Simon would love to walk on his own (well, with me holding his hand). But Simon didn't want to walk. He was so overwhelmed by all the people and stuff, he just wanted me to carry him. He had a good time, though. It was my left arm that suffered. Simon only weighs 16 pounds, 11 ounces (he just had a checkup), but that becomes uncomfortably heavy after an hour.

I bought Simon a little stuffed dog at the Disney Store. He loved it and held onto it the whole time we were at the mall, but I discovered something: Simon may act like he urgently needs to have a toy, but he's just fooling you. I don't think Simon even noticed the dog once we got home.

So, an hour of good times at the mall. We got home at noon. Still an entire day to fill. After Simon's first nap, I figured I would force him back into the car to go--somewhere, anywhere. First, though, we went for a walk up our street. Some workmen were working on a neighbor's house and they were playing Mexican music in the front yard. Simon started dancing (in the street) as soon as he heard it, and led me up the street to the source. He would have gone up the neighbor's driveway if I had let him. A couple of the workers noticed Simon and waved. I told them my son liked their music and they laughed. It was pretty cute.

I eventually got Simon into the car. We went just a couple miles down to Ventura Blvd. We went to a baby shop and played with toys (yes, I bought one--Simon fooled me again). Then we walked around outside. This time Simon wanted to walk, so we spent about 45 minutes walking around the area. It was really fun. We saw lots of people, some dogs, hundreds of cars, and lots of trees and flowers. Simon noticed everything and had something to "say" about most of it. An old asian man came up to me and asked, "That your son?" "Yes," I told him. "He look like you," he said and walked on. I almost said, "Thanks," but that wasn't the right response. I don't know what the man's point was. I said, "Good," and left it at that.

It was nearly 4 o'clock when we got home. I made some food for us and tried to get Simon to eat it. That kid is not interested in eating lately. He's impossible. Anyway... the day just went on and on and on. Until 10:40 tonight when Simon went to sleep. I'm so relieved. Isn't that terrible?