We just said farewell to the last batch of family in the parade of Emil's well-wishers. It's been non-stop since he was born, and with today's divorced and remarried set of parents, it just extends the family further and further. Where there used to be two sets of grandparents, now there are often four. We have three sets of grandparents, and I am thankful for all of them.
But I'm glad they're gone for now. The problem with living so far from all the grandparents is that getting time with them becomes a big ordeal. You have to interrupt your daily routine to spend time with them. If we lived close by, we could have more casual, spread out visits. A dinner here, a lunch there. But as it is, it's morning, noon and night with ne'er a break between.
They come with the claim that they are here to help. And they are. It's been wonderful having someone help cook and clean. But our house is small, and with four adults and two children, the chaos quickly gets out of control. So their additional cleaning doesn't always outweigh the additional mess.
My office is my living room, and frankly, I haven't gotten much work done. My house is now returned to me, and this morning in the space of three hours, I have managed to research an article I'm working on, communicate with two of my editors via email, meet with a house painter, do two loads of laundry, and clean out the fridge. Somehow, doing any of those things with people sitting around hanging out seemed very difficult.
Emil is sleeping peacefully in his swing, and Esme is at daycare. There is not a sound but the hum of the fridge, and that is beautiful. There are days that I think I will never be able to balance this parenting life with my own career, but then there are days like this that are smooth sailing.
I wish that we lived closer to our extended family. Then maybe I could see less of them. ;-)
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