Wednesday, November 14, 2007

I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached...

It would be a polite understatement to say that I've been scattered lately. I have a million things going through my head at any one time, and yet, when I try to think about exactly what I needed from the store... poof! It's gone.

Yesterday, Vivian had a "diaper explosion" on the way to daycare, so we had to change her clothes once we got there, using her "alternate" clothes in her cubby. Ok, so that means I'm supposed to bring new "alternate" clothes. Last night, I pulled out and set aside these alternates, right next to the cute outfit I had planned for today. So, this morning, another explosion in the car seat on the way to daycare. And... I'd forgotten the alternate clothes. Luckily, we had extra onesies in the cubby, but no pants. So Vivian is pantless today. Good parenting.

AND, I noticed this morning that I had forgotten to bring the breast pump up from the car into the office. I pump twice a day at the office, so that Vivian has food for the next day. I went down to my car a few minutes ago, and no pump. Did I leave it in the house? Is it sitting in my driveway? (if it was, it's probably gone by now, knowing my neighborhood) So now I have to drive home on my lunch break and pick it up (hopefully -- assuming it still exists).

The DMV "misplaced" the title transfer for my car, which means I need to request a new title and new paperwork from Ford, to prove the loan has been paid off. I've known about this since Halloween. I have until the end of this month. Have I done anything with the paperwork? No, it's still sitting on my desk.

We went to Mel & Grant's home last weekend for Friends Thanksgiving (which was lovely by the way -- I'll get around to posting about it someday), and I ended up leaving my book (which I had just had returned from accidentally leaving it behind in Tucson in September) and an outfit of Vivian's that was in the dryer (from another diaper explosion -- maybe those Target diapers aren't so good after all).

Oh, and there are only 40 crafting/shopping days left before Christmas. And yet again, I've overloaded myself with knitting for gifts. Why I do this to myself every year, I don't know. Five knitted gifts to be made (I've only started one, but at least it's half-done already), a knitted Santa hat for Christmas morning, and numerous sewing gifts (yes, much easier than knitting, but sewing needs to take place at the sewing machine, in the craft closet, away from Vivian -- as opposed to knitting, which I can do on the couch next to her).

And there's still work. I'll leave that one other than to say that everyone now realizes that I'm back, and my dance card is way, way full.

I need to stop the spinning in my head. I need to breathe. I need to do one thing at a time.

UPDATE: I found the pump. It wasn't in the driveway, it was next to the cat's water. Good place for it, don't you think? And yet another thing I've forgotten: when I went to feed Vivian at lunch, I noticed that there was a strange bottle in her food tray in the refrigerator. When I asked about it, I was told, "well, you didn't leave any nipples, just the milk bottles with caps, so we had to transfer your milk into another bottle." Great.

5 comments:

Uccellina said...

Some of this can't be helped, but you are totally allowed to tell your friends/relatives, "I just couldn't knit for you this year." That's what I'm doing. And everyone will understand, because they love you and that's why you were knitting for them in the first place.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Grant said...

Glad you had fun last weekend! We sure did.

The only technique I've ever found to actually remember and accomplish all of the random tasks life throws at me is to write all of them down as soon as I think of them. Note that this doesn't insure things necessarily get done in a timely manner by itself, but it does mean I spend a lot less time deepening the groove on my forehead with repeated 'Why did I forget that' head-slapping.

(Plus, I'm just a list-head. Very little compares to the simple joy of crossing something off a list.)

So do your sanity a favor and accept that your personal life is every bit as complex (and important) as your work life, and apply some of the same tools to the problem. It's worth the investment.

goodmamajama said...

Sara-

Faith's friend Jane here. the only solution we found for diaper explosions was to 1) go up a size and 2) use Pampers. every other diaper we tried leaked or exploded, but the size thing really helps as well.

Good luck!

Jane

K8 said...

Ugh, those days/weeks are maddening. Where you keep slipping up. Usually when I have a stream of forgetful episodes, it's because I'm exhausted and overwhelmed. Hope you can get some quality R&R and feel better :)

Anonymous said...

Hang in there! I hope you get some time to just chill with Vivian and Richard. (After all, if you don't get to all those handmade gifts this year, you can give them next...)

I have those types of days all the time nowadays. I love to blame the hormones for it -- There must be a grace period for hormone-induced forgetfulness while breastfeeding too!