eternal why

I just can't figure out why parenting one mild-mannered, easygoing three-year-old is so absolutely exhausting. Every night this week, I feel drained to oblivion when we get home, inundated with a desire to go crawl under a rock (a soft, warm rock). I guess it's the fact that I am trapped in a never-ending, stream-of-consciousness type conversation. I'm happy to be there, am frequently delighted by the witty observations, poignant queries, and downright funny quips that I am audience to. Days like today and yesterday (which is about as far back as I can remember--oh, yeah, and Tuesday, too), where we don't spend much time at home, well, those days just clobber me, especially when there are several in a row. At home, we get an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less, of solitary play in his room, a couple of times per day. I think we need this cave time, all of us, but we don't realize it until we aren't getting it. We exhaust each other in constant company. He's asked at least a dozen times today if we could just go home so he could play in his room. It just so happened that we couldn't but will be able to in just a short while. We can't wait!

He's car-napping in this picture, en route to a shopping experience with Gran and Gigi and me. I'm pretty sure we had some real fun, and when I get some quiet and rest, I'll remember! As I write this, he is chattering away with a multitude of questions, many of them beginning in "why". I am answering each one. And I'm happy to do so. And I'll be happy to rest my brain when he finally falls asleep tonight. I love him so, even though he deemed me the Wicked Stepsister in his role playing today. He sat on his pink throne there in the store and said "I am King Dennis, now you must bow down to my cute little feet." I elected not to. Gigi was his princess, but Gran and I were the Wicked Sisters. Gigi was the hero in all our scenarios today, and rightly so. We love our visits with her!