GIVING INTO EXHAUSTION

My Liv Grace has recently decided she does not need her afternoon nap any longer. When Liv napped, the stars would usually align and Nathan would as well, making it a perfect opportunity to get some things done. Like catch up on laundry, do a quick "surface clean" of the house, scrub toilets, put dinner together, take a shower, or sometimes even get a little cat nap in myself.

Needless to say, having Miss Liv awake all afternoon makes it very difficult to get this stuff done, and this makes for one unhappy Mama.

Now, instead of my quiet afternoons filled with getting things accomplished around the house, and sometimes even fitting in a little "me time", I get a 2 year old trying to help scrub the toilet and splashing toilet water all over the floor I just washed. Or I get her hand prints all over the windows I just cleaned. Or I get her dumping out the HUGE box of Little People I just finished cleaning up. Or she decides to walk around the house eating her goldfish and stepping on some along the way right after I vacuum.

You get it, she pretty much undoes everything I do.

And forget about taking a shower or getting a nap with her up. Shower time? She decides to pull out my box of tampons, unwraps each and every one of them and pops them out of the applicators. Or she decides to lather her body and hair in my lotion. Or she decides to dump out all of Daddy's floss sticks and licks each and every one of them. 20 minute cat nap? She jumps up and down at the bottom of the couch. Or she jumps on my head. Or she yells in my ear, "Mommy! Wake up!!!"

Don't get me wrong, I love my girl, but this behavior pretty much drives me all sorts of crazy. So on the rare occasion she plain old wears herself out from playing Little People all morning, or pushing her dolly around in her stroller [oh, the life of a 2 year old], and passes out on the couch, I thank the heavens above.

Just the other day I was going through some paperwork and noticed that she was especially quiet. Which is never, ever a good sign. So I went in search of her and found this:

Book on the floor, Dora purse filled with her Little People by her side, legs crossed, asleep on the couch. Only my girl.