Rainy Days: A Portrait

Rainy days begin at 6.30 a.m., with a nudge on the arm that kicks me out of my dream right into the midst of a reality that involves: semi-darkness, little fists, hunger and uncooperative maternity bra straps.

They continue through breakfast: a vain attempt to exchange a few non-child related sentences with FH while BB, nose pressed to the window in dismay, shouts "il pleut! il pleut! il pleut!" approximately five hundred times. When this weather report is finally deemed sufficient, he hurries to the back window to check out conditions on the other side. Much to his surprise and disgust, il pleut out the back as well...


Rainy days involve indoor activities that, no matter how enthusiastically presented by conscientious parents (drawing, stories, tower building, fun, educational DVDs...), seem to have an average lifespan of three minutes, and are never an antidote to the pained plea: "outside now?"

On rainy days - inevitably - kids manage to be so completely out of sync that one wakes up the minute the other falls asleep. Cups of tea get cold while LB is rocked to sleep; jaws are clenched when meals are rejected, untouched.

As rainy afternoons crawl on, FH mumbles that he has "something" to do in the shed, and attempts a breakout. No way: I block the door to freedom and remind him that we're in this together.

On rainy evenings, I start to fantasize about the cold glass of wine I'm going to sip as soon as the kids are in bed.
But of course, rainy evenings are - annoyingly, unfairly, infuriatingly - those evenings when baby's eyes are wide open and BB cries after lights out. His nose is running and he doesn't feel well.

On rainy days, the glass of wine never gets drunk: the idea of it lingers like the promise of a brighter day.
On rainy days, my head hits the pillow at 10 p.m. and I think: LB smiles now and looks up when he hears my voice. BB strokes his little brother's head to soothe him when he cries. FH is grumpy and fed up but he gave me a wry smile that seemed to mean "I'm sorry, I'm just tired."

Rainy days are hard, but they're not so bad.