Proof I Am An Obsessive Knitter, Bad Mother, Inadequate Adult...

...or all of the above.

So today I braved the grocery store to stock the larder for Thanksgiving dinner and went to a doctor's appointment, kiddo in tow because my childcare plan for the appointment fell through. On the way back I considered the dinner I was planning to cook and was resolved to put a big pot of soup on the moment I got in the door so I could get ahead on some of the household stuff until I peeked in the rearview mirror and noticed something shocking: spawn was totally falling asleep.

First thought: "Whoa." (Spawn is well past the days of a regular afternoon nap.)

Second thought: "If I take her home, she's not going to sleep. I can tell her she was obviously tired enough to fall asleep in the car so she has to take some quiet time, but that's not going to be a fun battle to fight."

Third thought: "What's the nearest place I can drive to where I can park, but still be certain she'll have rested long enough to be absolutely fast asleep? Oh, I should crank up the heat and turn up the radio now so that when I turn off the engine it'll stay warm for a while."

Let's just say I netted about forty minutes of knitting and Fresh Air out of the deal. Carpe nemam! Now I just need to push the state of the front entryway out of my mind until I get a chance to mop it.

Oh, and speaking of spawn:

[SCENE: Int., Maison de Stijl, salle à manger.]

NORA: Dada and I built the city buses, you know.

VICTORIA: Is that so?

NORA: Yes. Dada put the tops on. He had a big ladder. And I had a smaller ladder so that I could build the rest. We built all the city buses! And we built you!

VICTORIA: You what?

NORA: We put you together with a ladder.

VICTORIA: I have a feeling my mom would be very surprised to hear that. I was born just like you were, Nora.

NORA: But then I built you to make you a big person. The workmen came and put the top of you on because I couldn't reach that high.

VICTORIA: Nora, I want you to think about something. You came out of my tummy. If you were around to build me, then how could you have grown inside my belly?

[NORA thinks for a moment.]

VICTORIA: This is what's called a paradox. Besides, I distinctly recall growing up, and there weren't any workmen involved.

NORA: But if there weren't any workmen, how did you become a big person?

(This? This is one of the questions I didn't study for before I went and had a spawn.)