For My Hair

I'm having a bad mama day which isn't too unlike a bad hair day.  I can't seem to muster the patience to slag through the tedium of household maintenance.  And just in case I didn't feel guilty enough, my poor little girl has a cold and really needs her Mama.  

I'm starting a class tonight so a lot of what I'd get done here later has to be done now.  C will be home tonight with his two older kids so I have to cook dinner for three vegetarians.  I'm moodier on the nights I have to cook for them because it's extremely difficult to choose and prepare a meal for five people with radically different food preferences.  Although I like to cook, I always get a bad case of the guilts when I'm stuck in the kitchen for an hour or so with Eliza on the floor, begging for attention.  Today, I'd bought her new crayons so she sat on the kitchen floor and repeatedly showed me the "pictures" she drew.  I oohed and ahhed with vigor, hoping my enthusiasm for her scribbles would feel like quality time for my daughter.

In the midst of dinner preparations, I prepared lunch for both Eliza and myself but she was more interested in dancing around then sitting down to eat with me.  Then it was time to clean up the mess in the kitchen from lunch, dinner prep and an hour of crayola highjinks.  Fortunately, that stuff does come off walls.  

The kitchen clean, the crayons and various other toys that were scattered across the floor now put away, I looked at the clock and realized it was Eliza's nap time.  Unfortunately, Eliza didn't agree.  She kept asking for the barrettes I'd bought "for my hair."  She'd been playing with them and now we couldn't find them.  I emptied baskets in her closet, looked in the purse, the bucket and the pans she'd been playing with but it proved a useless mission.  I have yet to locate these four multicolored barrettes Eliza so desperately needs in order to lie down for a much needed nap.  

I put her down in the crib but she screamed in protest.  I left the room, knowing she's more likely to sleep if I don't hover.  With her cold, her afternoon tumbling class and C and the kids the guardians for the night, she really needs this nap.  The screaming stopped and I found myself thinking good thoughts.

However, her tiny voice still sounds, with alarming monotony "for my hair.  For my hair."  She wants those barrettes.  I honestly have no idea where they are.  My daughter is extremely head strong--she might fall asleep, she might not.  Either way, I'm going to be hearing about these barrettes for the rest of my natural life.

Or at least until the end of this week.