Exhaustion is a 4 Letter Word

You ever have those days? Those days where you're praying your child will fall back asleep so you can get one more hour of sleep or feel like you just might fall asleep while pushing the stroller? Today was one of those days for me. I blame swim class.
Ah, the first day of swimming classes at the rec. I managed not to slip on the wet floor of the locker room and crack my head open, not to drop my son in the pool and let him sink to the bottom before I could grab him and not to wear an inappropriate bathing suit, well I guess that depends of what the other people considered inappropriate since my boobs (or possible my son) seemed to manage to untie the front of my top twice during class, which I'd like to state for the record I caught before it was too late (I don't want to be the breast exposing mom that causes mothers not to let fathers come to class with their children anymore), but the fears that kept me up the night before were diminished by the end. My son liked, I fear using the word love could come back to haunt me, the class. He only cried when the instructor came over and sang to him. By the way, can I side track for a second and ask what's that about? My son laughs and blah blah blah blah's any Pam or Joe on the street, but the second a cute little old lady at the grocery store, or a swim instructor apparently, comes up to him he freaks out? Explain.
Anyway, the water was a bit chilly. So for his and my sake I kept my legs bent and made sure the water stayed over our shoulders (the in and out makes me cold-alas I'm assuming it makes my son cold as well)and between the tossing up and down, the splashing and the holding, not to mention the difficult, wet changing procedure in the locker room after (hello, thank God I wasn't the only one trying to balance their baby and pull off their suit and pull up their pants at the same time), I left the class in pain. It seems as if Mommy and Me Swim Classes at the rec aren't strictly for the benefit of the baby, but for the parents as well. To say my arms and legs were burning would be an understatement.
In the meantime the class did a number on my son as well. My guy had his head on my shoulder before we reached the car, was passed out in his seat less than a block away and continued to sleep for 3 hours after we got home-just enough time for my arms to regain the strength to pick him up again.
But by all means don't go by what I say-my girlfriend who took the class felt fine. Ooph. To her I say congrats because this is definitely a burn you can feel.
I assume this was the route of my exhaustion this morning, but in pondering that I have to ask the inevitable question, why is, "Why are you so tired," ever uttered to a mother?
When someone asks me this I want to look them in the eyes and tell them what I've done today.
"Well, my son got up at 6am, I got up, gave him a bottle, played with him, washed the dishes, fed him a bowl of oatmeal, ate a bowl full of stale Cheerios myself, brought him in the shower with me so I could shower, dried him and myself off, got us dressed, watched Sesame Street, clapped, sang along and said "Yadadada" when Elmo revealed his thought of the day, got the stroller out of the trunk of my car (I keep it in the trunk so I just stop and pull it out on my way out of the house-so much easier than lugging it inside or up my stairs-creative-huh), walked from Monroe to Alabama where I met up with my friend who runs a day care, switched my son from a single stroller into a double with one of the day care kids while she pushed the rest in a triple, went to the park, played, chased, pushed two babies in the swing, strolled back to the day care, fed my son his bottle, loaded him back in the single stroller, walked to Walbaums to pick up things for dinner and formula, stopped at the neighbors to say hi, and sat my child back in the high chair to feed him lunch before his afternoon nap..oh and did I mention it's only 12:30? I still have an entire afternoon of diaper changes, dog walks, feedings, dinner preparing, house cleaning, errand and phone call tagging and wooden stools to paint silver for my son's Halloween costume that I'm bent on making to do?"
But ya know, saying would just take away the smallest bit of energy I have left. Instead I say "I don't know" and keep walking. Did I mention I'm worried that I might fall asleep while pushing the stroller?
Exhaustion is definitely a four letter word-especially when you don't have the time to indulge it or take the bottle of aspirin necessary to relieve the pain in your body. That's right I'm still crying over my swim class muscles.