Mad Skillz

I have been feeling a little negative about my parenting skills lately. For me, the most challenging aspect is devoting all of my focus and energy on stimulating Sophie. I don't know why I find it so hard to sit on the floor and play with her continuously for hours. It's not physically tolling, and hasn't been ever since she stopped asking to be carried (THANK G-D). It's just mentally exhausting for me. As I've mentioned before, the mornings are easy. We have so many scheduled "outings" that we are rarely home. And I feel awesome about that, because I could easily sit around in my pj's all morning and early afternoon. It's that cursed window between nap time and bedtime when it is still just the two of us because Shimmy works late and I am spent. This is when I usually let her watch videos (hanging head in shame). She loves her Sesame Street, and it is pretty educational, but still.... I mean, she doesn't watch continuously, she just seems to like it on in the background as she plays or colors. I know it's not the worst thing in the world, but it does make me feel like a crappy parent. Yesterday, however, we miraculously watched nothing. We had school together in the morning, and then we went to the library where I got two books (The Time Traveler's Wife and The Favoured Child, both of which I have wanted to read for some time) and Sophie and I played in the children's section for a while. Then we came home and had lunch, read books, and put Sophie down for a nap. After her nap (which went later than usual because it took her an hour to fall asleep), she asked me to sit in her crib and read books to her. She often does this, and I happily comply. We may sit it there for half an hour or more, just reading and hanging out. Kind of like a sleepover party :) After that, we listened to her Baby Einstein CD's in her room and played. At some point we ate dinner, but then we returned down to the playroom where we played for hours. I have no idea where I got my energy (maybe from my guilt of not doing this enough?). By the time I put her to bed I was feeling pretty proud of myself and my mad parenting skillz. Oh yea, and I am 5 months pregnant with achey joints, a seemingly detatched tailbone, occasional sciatica, and the past two days a HORRIBLE cold that will not respond to any of the allowed medications. So, as I said, MAD SKILLZ!