The Great Weekend Recap

If it ever came up on the ballot, I'd vote for a four day work week. That extra day is a God send.

It meant that I actually got all of my laundry done! Well, until we discovered mouse poop in the corner of the living room where Gabi's downstairs toys, blankets and stuffed animals are kept.

We first saw the mouse run from under the stove to under the sink on Sunday morning. We thought it was isolated to the kitchen and pantry (which got a scrub down like you've never seen before), but apparently it likes to cruise through the living room, too, to see if Gabi has left any crumbs. NO MORE FOOD IN THE LIVING ROOM.

Oh, and I'm not dumb. I know there are more. But for the sake of my sanity, since I only saw one, there is just one.

Gilberto put out a bunch of bait and traps. Die, you sucker, die!

In the meantime I'll be washing stuffed animals and blankets for days to come.

Having a three day weekend also meant that Gabi got her way a little bit more than usual, because there's only so much whining I can take. The key is to make it seem like she is NOT winning, even though she is.

Like, when Gabi woke up Sunday morning crying for her watermelon, I gave in and handed over the cantaloupe. It was a compromise. I got to cut up the watermelon and prevent a smashed gut crisis, and she got to love on a piece of fruit. Complete with another face drawn by my ever accommodating husband.

And you know, I have no idea where that cantaloupe is. I haven't seen it since Sunday morning, and I picked up every last thing last night and put it all away. Where did the cantaloupe go? Well, that's what I get for letting my daughter play mommy to a rotting piece of fruit. Depending on the mess it makes, we'll see if the peace it brought was worth it.

Besides fruitgate and the mouse, we also went to a birthday party for one of Gabi's little friends over the weekend. She had a blast, of course (they had a bouncy house). But me? I was the outcast as usual.

Does anyone else have this problem? I think I'm pretty social, but when I try to talk and get to know other parents, it just never works out. They only respond to questions I ask and never really reciprocate to create a real conversation. I almost always end up off to the side watching Gabi play, and watching all the other parents laugh it up together.

At least this time I had Gilberto to keep me company. The mother of the little girl is Brasilian, as were most of the guests, so I drug him with me, thinking he would enjoy the camaraderie.

He didn't. So we had each other. He even commented afterwards on how I had tried to talk to people, and they were only interested in talking amongst themselves.

How do you break in to an already existing group of friends? Maybe you just don't. Oh well. As long as Gabi has a good time I can be a big girl.

The rest of our weekend was spent relaxing. Actually, that's not entirely true. Gilberto and Gabi were the ones relaxing, while I buzzed around the house all weekend long trying to get everything cleaned and organized. You know, because I was given an extra day off and I didn't want to waste it. I just couldn't help myself.

What I should've been doing was following Gilberto's lead, because today my house is in only slightly better condition than it was last Friday. Except for the pantry. My pantry is now a work of art!

Oh, and Gabi's room! That was the first room I cleaned over the weekend, and since she decided to spend her time playing with my jewelry and Gilberto's PVC pipes instead of her toys, her room remained untouched and is still spotless.

By the way, PVC pipes make great toys. Gilberto has boxes full of end pieces and joints, and Gabi sat outside on the patio for hours putting them all together. She fancied herself a little inventor. I fancied some free time without a little whirlwind following and causing destruction in my path. We will definitely be playing with the PVC again.

So here I am, at work once again. Looking back, we had a pretty darn good weekend. It might not seem like I accomplished much, but I got more done than if I'd only had two days to work with. Like the laundry! Minus all the stuff the mouse pooped on. And as with all time off, it went by way too fast.

This week should also go pretty quickly, since I keep thinking today is Monday. On Friday I'll think it's Thursday, and then I'll wake up on Saturday morning as if Friday had just disappeared. Now if only all Fridays did that.