Bad Habits

This reminiscing about Abby’s hissy fits led me to realize how Abby changed some of my bad habits, namely cleaning and sleeping. I had noted how Abby would take items from my bedroom, but I didn’t say what in particular. Well, up until Abby came into my life, I would use the floor as a ‘storage device’ for my clothes, both dirty and clean. I had a dirty clothes pile and a clean clothes pile. It was these items that Abby went after whenever she took something from my room. Any and all clothes on the ground were brought out to the living room: shoes, socks, pants and underwear, even dirty underwear, out there for everyone to see. It was embarrassing as hell.

I couldn’t blame her for taking these items for a couple of reasons. First, the clothes must have looked a whole lot like the toys that we bought for her and was made of a similar fabric (or at least in her baby girl mind). Second. The clothes were on the floor, so Abby must have thought they were in fair play. After all, we kept the toys on the floor.

I could have scolded her and trained her not to do this, but the solution was easy and obvious; I needed to stop living like a slob, clean up my room, put the clean clothes in a drawer, buy a hamper and put the dirty clothes in a hamper. I did just that and the problem was solved.

Something else Abby had an effect on my life was on my sleeping habits. Admittedly, they were poor. Left to my own devices, I would stay up late and sleep late as well. I noted earlier that Abby slept with me, a habit that persisted long into her adulthood. On the weekdays, I normally went to bed around 12 or 1 and woke up around 7:30 or 8, which meant Abby went to bed around 12 or 1 and woke up around 7:30 or 8. However, on the weekends, I reverted to my old ways and stayed up until 3 or 4. Abby, the loyal and faithful baby-girl that she was, would lie at my feet and slept without fussing or protesting while I read or watched TV. Come 8 am, she didn’t care how little sleep I had; it was time to get up. Abby would whine and cry until she got her way- which was almost all the time. Baby-girl knew how to get her way.

After dragging myself around a few days with just a few hours of sleep, I changed my sleeping habits, stopped being a night-owl and started going to bed at a more reasonable hour.