J. went away this weekend to a wedding in Chicago. We would have loved to have gone together, but dragging the kids along was a little too much, so I stayed home with the kids and she went with a friend. She had a fabulous time – missing the kids, natch – and I enjoyed the time with the girls. I was also looking forward to having a Saturday night to myself once the kids were in bed- watching the movies I wanted to watch , sitting around in my underwear, eating pizza and drinking beer. I ended up doing the dishes, drinking diet coke and barely (I nodded off twice, forced myself to continue) making it through “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy” before collapsing in bed. So much for my big night off!
Still, it was fun but exhausting. Savita is at a particular age where she’s supremely needy. She needs to have you close by, and I think after the second day she must have felt the loss of J. because she was even more vocal in her whininess than usual. She also refused to nap at all in the morning (*very* unusual). Annika did fine – a little more clingy on Saturday than normal, but only in a very subtle way.
The experience, however, reminded me of a difference between Jyotsna and myself. I love my children, of course. But I’m also a classic introvert in that people *drain* me instead of energizing me. (For a most excellent article, check out this.) Not to say I don’t *like* people, but at the end of the day I need time to myself. Jyotsna is more of an extrovert than she is an introvert (although she has her days), so she seems to have an easier time just hanging with them. I think I deal with this by being a little more directed in my interactions with the kids; For example, I’d prefer to go out and *do* something with them, like run an errand. J. is more apt to spend more intentional time with them than I do. It’s obviously not an either/or thing, but I definitely tend to one end of the scale while she is more able to hang out on the other end.
It’s already May. Savita is going to be turning 1 in a few weeks. Seems surreal.