Just One Chapter

As I mentioned yesterday today was a busy day. I was up at 5:00 AM and pulled back into home at shortly before 8:30 PM. I wasn’t working all those hours. I calculate that I worked about seven of those hours with the hours between 7:30-10:45 AM spent at home, another short break at around 2:00 PM, and dinner from 5:45-6:45. The rest, however, was work and came with very little time relaxing at home.

So it was that when I pulled into the driveway at shortly before 8:30 PM I was looking forward to getting a little reading in. When I sat down all was quiet but that didn’t last. The boys awakened in a rage and began screaming their heads off. I walked upstairs to see what the matter was and if I could help and discovered that they needed a second water cup. I offered to retrieve it for them but in the meantime the little girl was awakened as well.

It was over at this point. I had come home wanting to read just one chapter and made it far enough to start imagining that not only would I read that one chapter but I would also be able to watch this week’s episode of Loki. None of that was going to happen with even one child awake though.

I first went into the boys’ room so my wife could help our little girl. Unfortunately one of our sons has decided he needs mommy near him to fall asleep and daddy is a poor and unworthy substitute. This meant we had to switch places. My daughter is a lot like one of her brothers in that she won’t fall asleep if she is afraid she is going to miss anything, and the sounds of play were heavy from her brothers’ room.

With her refusing to go to sleep, the boys growing quiet, and my wife nowhere to be found I decided to bring her downstairs so I could at least read my one chapter. This worked. Nearly to perfection. I was almost finished when my wife came downstairs and the baby saw her. If you have children and are a father you know what happens next.

Fathers are poor and unworthy substitutes and my daughter once having caught sight of her mother was unwilling to do so again. This meant that I had to finish the final pages of the one, lone, single chapter I wished to read with the sounds of baby’s screaming ringing in my ears.