On how to be mediocre and feel really, really good about it

This week Josh had three days where he either had work or school or both all day until about 10 at night. Ususally he just has one day a week like that, and I collapse in a heap of exhaustion at the end of it. Since this week meant potential triple exhaustion I decided to change some things to make things a little easier on myself, I decided to have less goals and embrace mediocrity. Turns out it works really well, day #3 and I'm doing great, also it turns out I am really good at being mediocre. So good in fact that I've decided to give the rest of you some lessons.

Housework. Who needs it. If I'm not having people over, why do I care if there are dishes in the sink or spots on the bathroom mirror? I've finally decided that if Josh and I are the only ones seeing it, who cares? Plus if someone comes over there's always time to cram stuff under the couch and pretend your house is really clean. Cooper doesn't care if I still haven't cleaned up dinner from the night before, so why should I? So on days where I'm on my own at night too, I spend nap time watching Project Runway instead of doing the dishes.

Which brings me to my next point, watch some crappy tv. For some reason no matter how much I entertain Cooper, tickle games, reading books, dancing, singing, etc... He is still most entertained by watching me watch tv. It's so weird. He doesn't even watch the tv, he just likes to watch us watch it. So if that makes my son so happy and delighted, I guess I can oblige. I try to teach Cooper valuable life lessons along the way so that it can be educational too like, "See? That's why you don't hang out with people who wear sports jerseys." I think he learns a lot.

Don't run any errands, ever. Avoid them at all costs. In any given two hour span, Cooper's going to need to nap and eat some sort of pureed vegetable and need the vegetable disposed of once it comes out the other end. It's so much easier to address those needs at home rather than on a solo trip to Costco. Cooper now has about ten diapers left and I fully intend on holding out one more day so that Josh can come with us. And hey, he still has swim diapers left right? (just kidding...)

Don't make dinner. Why make dinner for one? Just eat mac and cheese! Also if you don't make dinner, you don't have to go to the grocery store, another win.

Wear sweat pants. The glory of sweatpants is two-fold. 1. Comfort, of course. 2. They're more absorbant and more forgiving of the bodily fluids that will inevitably end up on your clothes. Drool, vomit, pee, poop, the usual culprits.

Cry with your baby. Most of the time Cooper's cries need a remedy, like food, sleep, toys... But sometimes he's just a little fussy for no discernible reason. I've decided to stop panicking about it while I look for a new toy to shove in his face, but to just embrace it. Sometimes we all just need our mommies to snuggle us while we have a nice little cry.

Find joy in the little things. Today I tried Cooper's mittens on him in preparation for our trip to the Arctic next week and he just laid there and sucked on his mittens until they were completely soaked in drool and no longer warming his hands. Cute. Also my little garbage disposal did something I never thought he'd do and finally refused to eat something. I started to feed him green beans and he gagged and cried. He's never not liked food before so I assumed he just wasn't hungry. So I gave him a bite of apple sauce just to see, he tasted it and smiled, and then I gave him another bite of green beans and he wouldn't even swallow them! He just sat there with his mouth open til it all dripped out. Little trickster.

And finally, my last tip for having a completely non stressful day without your partner in crime, is to stop worrying about anything other than sitting on the floor and playing with your baby.

Uh-oh, there's a nip slip in this picture. 

Let's all expect a little less of ourselves sometimes (about the non-important things at least.)

It feels so good.