progress report, if a zombie tried to write a novel

I’m finding it MUCH harder to get writing done with a three year-old than at any previous age. The “terrible twos” were difficult, in terms of behavior, but the terrible threes are just as terrible, for different reasons. Two year-olds just don’t understand the things they want, which makes things frustrating – but three year-olds understand everything, they know their parents well, and they know just how to get what they want. They’re bold and manipulative and stubborn!

And they don’t nap anymore.

And they don’t sleep through the night because there are monsters in their bedrooms now. And they have bad dreams.

And even though it’s lovely that they’re potty trained, now they’ll wake you up to take them to the potty in the middle of the night. You almost want to tell them, “Oh, just go in your underwear, we’ll pretend it’s like a diaper and we’ll change them in the morning, Mommy needs to SLEEP.” But you don’t.

And they wake up at 7:00, on the dot, every single day, and ready to GO – and keep going, and going, and going…

The amount of involvement he needs is just so much greater. He should be in school this year, but you know, life happened in an epic way this year.

This has to be the hardest age. At one, they were adorable! Do you remember one, with their toddling and babbling? And newborns! My God, newborns were easy! They sleep 16 hours a day! Just strap that sucker to your chest and you’re good to go! Two was trying, because they just don’t understand the world yet – but three is impossible because they do.

Four gets better, right? Somebody tell me four gets better! (Lord, please, lol!) But if nothing else, at least there will be preschool next year. God bless school!

progress report for the week of 11/9:

If a zombie tried to write a novel, she might write about 1200 words in a week.

But they can’t all be great weeks. They can’t all be like last week, where I sat down and wrote about 1200 words in one single hour. Nope, not all hours can be like that. Certainly not. It might be near impossible for me to make my 20,000 words for the month, but I’m not giving up hope just yet. Better weeks will come, they always do.

On a more positive note, part 2 is itching to be written. Which is odd since I don’t have a damn clue what happens in the present narrative of part 2, but all the corresponding flashbacks are screaming at me!

Hey, that’s better than nothing, right? It’s better than being a zombie with no part 2 screaming to be written.