I have so many fits and starts of blog posts collecting dust in my dashboard. We have entered that labor-intensive phase of toddlerhood with Julius in which he needs nearly constant attention and doesn’t sleep much. I remember this from Miles’s second year. I think both of my boys have always been good about entertaining themselves, and they are increasingly able to play together (or at least near each other) without fighting, but still, the attention span of a 13 month old is approximately 13 seconds.

It’s a funny combination of slowing down and being busy lately. I am very busy doing things like applying sunblock. Fixing snacks. Replenishing Julius’s toothbrush because he has a serious toothpaste addiction. Reading books about dinosaurs. Meeting up with friends at the park. Acting as a human buffer between my baby and the laws of gravity. Sneaking in chapters of YA novels while the boys play at the water table.

A lot of the time I’m kind of not doing much of anything because the boys are outside playing and need supervision but not a lot of input from me, so, depending on what they’re doing and my energy level, I might read a bit or weed a bit…

I know, it’s a hard life.

Things I am not doing quite so much: writing. Cleaning the house (or even picking up all the crap strewn everywhere). Keeping up with the dishes from all those snacks. Eating regular meals. Spending time alone with my husband. Getting enough sleep. I suppose there’s time for all that, later.

I do miss writing. Reading more makes me want to write more, but I haven’t the time. I don’t have a lot of quiet, and I need quiet to write (the boys are out with Mike right now, and I should be drawing…). Soon enough I need to return to all those bits I’ve started and finish them, or more likely, decide they are going nowhere and start over.