Mondays Suck. Well, DUH.

Monday sucks. First, it’s MONDAY. Show me someone who loves Mondays and I’ll show you a person in need of medication. Second, our vacation is done. And that’s NO GOOD NO.

Nobody likes the first Monday morning after a vacation. It’s hard, waking up and getting your poop in a group on Monday at the best of times, let alone the first day after vacation. It’s like morning came along and punched you in the face. HARD. And then laughed about it.

We had a lovely vacation, though, relaxing and visiting with BDH’s family. We did a lot of swimming, and playing with Stinkerbelle, and watching Castle on the giant TV.

(Life-size Nathan Fillion FTW!! *ahem*)

And even though we were, as is usually the case when we go on vacation, sick almost all week with colds, it was great.

So it’s hard to return to our normal everyday routine, several provinces away.

Admittedly, it’s not as bad for me, the stay-at-home mom, as it is for BDH, who had to not only drag himself up and out for work, but also had to steel himself for a shift on call. Nothing says “vacation’s over” like preparing for phone calls at all hours of the night. But even for me, the start of the work week means a change in thinking.

I may not have to get up and make myself presentable and go anywhere, but I do have a bit of readjustment to real life post-vacation. For one thing, it’s just me and That Baby, all day every day, once again. Throughout the week while we were away, there were grandparents and cousins and aunts around, to visit Stinkerbelle and play with her and keep her entertained, which was great for her — she is such a social kid, and she loved having her family around all week.

But it also gave me a break every now and then to shower or knit or read or just relax, which was nice. And it gave me other adults to talk to, which is something I definitely miss being at home all the time.

Stinkerbelle, who developed a love of PBS children’s television while we were away, returns to a life without cable. Fortunately, there are enough SuperWhy! DVDs at the local video store to keep her rocking out to the SuperReaders theme tune for awhile, and the rest we can probably watch online. But we can’t replace her lovely time with Grammy and Grandad and everyone quite so easily, so we’ll have to plan and budget for more trips home in future.

And we can’t make up for the endless diversions of her home away from home… so we have already begun the search for a reasonably priced, and hopefully second-hand, slide for the backyard. Or even a full-on play centre.

We came home to a clean(-ish) house and healthy cats, which is always good. But our voicemail contained a few important messages and our fridge was mostly empty, so this Monday also involved making calls and appointments, getting out and running errands, most notably for groceries. Trucking around with a cold on a humid, stanky day is nobody’s idea of a good time, least of all mine, but it had to be done.

And at least we got out of the house. Overcast, humid and threatening rain: the trifecta of keeping a two-year-old housebound.

But although we enjoy getting away for a vacation, I must admit it IS always nice to be home again. Sleeping in one’s own bed. Routines. And AIR CONDITIONING. Oh how we missed our A/C.

So, you know, it’s not ALL bad.

And Monday morning is now Monday afternoon. Monday can’t last forever.

And when you think of it, our vacation may be over, but we’re one day closer to our NEXT vacation. So. Onwards and upwards.