It's a common psychological concept. When we first experience something, the brain is more or less overclocking. It's using everything it has to take things in, problem solve, and to store information for later. When you drive to a new job for the first time, it feels like it takes forever because your brain is mapping the route, taking in landmarks, looking for hazards, etc. Five years later your brain has it all mapped out and you end up zoning out on the way home, possibly even being frustrated that you didn't get enough time to finish that podcast you were listening to.
So it is with Tuesday. Even throwing in a brief trip to the store, it really flew by. Part of this is that over the past two weeks I have a sort of "circuit training" method for dealing with Cleo involving different activity stations.
Often in a typical day with Cleo, I will "run the stations" when she gets fussy. Station One is the changing table, Station Two is holding her on the Poeng chair, Station Three is the bouncy chair, station Four is the jungle mat, station Five is our bed where I have mini stations (boppy, practice sitting/standing, playing the ukulele for her), Station Six is the rocker cradle, and Station Seven is to the couch to feed her.
Through it all, though, Station Eight, the final station, is constantly in the back of my mind.
That station: The Swing.
Don't get me wrong, the swing is a godsend! However, there is no single piece of child rearing equipment that elicits such mixed emotions from H and I. As far as I can tell, it has a 90% success rate of calming and quieting the child; often putting her to sleep as well. Which is a good thing... and a bad thing.
You see, the swing is like a cheat code in a game. You put in your code and suddenly the game becomes easier. However, if you cheat too much, the game loses it's challenge, and at the end of the day, the fun of a game comes FROM the challenge. In some ways, the point of my Station system is to make sure I have tried any and all methods of calming/entertaining the child before I resort to the swing.
That said, there are levels or sections in games that have been so tortuously difficult that cheat codes saved me from quitting. Seriously, there are games that I have enjoyed immensely but never finished due to the difficulty of a final level. Shadow of the Colossus is the biggest one that stands out for me. Feeling challenged is one thing, feeling frustrated is an entirely different one.
H and I both have the same mixed emotions about the swing. It has a very, very valuable place in our house and I would probably attack anyone who tried to take it. I'm not sure about H, but the swing is the ONLY place the kid falls asleep on my days to watch her. It's also an invaluable mom and dad "timeout" option when Cleo has pushed us to the breaking point.
However, it is always there... tempting you. It's like a siren song calling you when the baby is only moderately cranky or tempting you to grab another 15 minutes of cry free time. Seriously, sometimes I can almost hear "Roots and Beginnings" from LOTR when I look at that thing...
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