Sorry, My Baby Ate Your Homework

Madeline was home sick from school today...which means that I was also home sick from school today.

I decided to try to get some much needed paper correcting done this afternoon while I was home with the beastie, and oh holy moly, quel nightmare!

How do moms who work from home do it?

I spent two hours shifting piles of papers from one side of my body to the other so that Madeline couldn't reach them.  Everything I didn't want her to touch, she wanted.  Everything I allowed her to play with, she tossed aside like a used tissue.  She may, in fact, have used some papers as tissues.

(That's B quality work you're sitting on, Maddie Bear. You better not have a leaky diaper.)  

And never has my baby loved me so much than when I wasn't totally engrossed in h.e.r.  She kept trying to sit in my lap, give me kisses, or play with my hair.  (That's a new one!)

Eventually I was able to distract her with my empty Dunkin Donuts cup.  Considering the sweet smell of Dunks coffee lured her from the safety of my womb into this cold, cold world, I figured it just might work.  It did...for about two minutes.  

America's babies run on Dunkins.  

Luckily, she fell right asleep after lunch.  I guess a night of not sleeping and kicking Mumma in the face tuckered the gal plumb out.  In the forty minutes I spent grading while she napped, I got twice the work done that I did in the two hours she was present.

Now, how do I explain the crumpled up papers and baby drool to my students???