Vacation from what?

This weekend took a lot out of me.  It was a good weekend, MJ was her adorable self, but she's becoming more of a tornado.  She's still only a small dust-devil, but she is slowly working her way towards tornado status.  I think I had my first real glimpse of what toddlerhood has in store for us and I'm more than a little scared.

This morning was the first time I was excited to drop her off at daycare.  So I could take it easy during the week.  What happened to weekends being a break?  I think I need a vacation, but I'm not sure what I need a vacation from.  Do I need a vacation from motherhood (which is not an option)?  Or do I need a vacation with my family, wherein I spend lots of quality time with MJ?  If watching MJ was my full time job I probably wouldn't feel so overwhelmed by her.  But being as she is my vacation, and the rest of the week is a full time job, it seems more daunting.

I am tired this morning, even though DH woke up with her at 2 am.  The words are arriving through a fog.  Last night we went to the local family bar.  It's a pub, and truly feels like one, until you see the scads of children running around.  There was even a children's birthday party, complete with little pink and orange cone-shaped party hats.  We met a lovely couple who commented on how adorable MJ is, so I automatically liked them.  They mentioned that by the time their youngest was 2 she had been to more bars in St. Paul than most adults, but that they had to stop taking her to dive bars when she started eating popcorn off the barroom floor.  I am proud to say that DH and I figured this out before reaching the popcorn-off-the-barroom-floor status.  Maybe we're more intuitive parents than I thought.

Though MJ did dive for the french fry basket every chance she got, and got a couple of them all the way to her mouth before we could pry them free.