Thanks, Kialua and Bill.
Unfortunately, I am not seeing any immediate solutions to any of it until we find a house.
Our apartment is so absurdly cramped that our bedroom basically fits our bed and a couple of very small coffee tables (one for the small television we have in there), and that's about it. My son is only 10 months old, so I can't run the risk of letting him take his nap on the bed and falling off or something, so it's always in the crib.
We have a play pen for him, but I think if I put him in it to sleep during the day in the bedroom he would wake up a little bit freaked out...he likes his routines, and he's really accustomed to having me right there whenever he wakes up. Sometimes I go into the bedroom and take a really good nap when he lays down for his; that's helpful for me, but not so much for my husband or the housework...
I usually take a nap or just relax while he's taking his nap, as even our washing machine is so obnoxiously loud and squeaky that I can't do laundry while he's napping. We're getting a new one on Monday, thankfully.
I suppose it's just time to accept reality for what it is, and that there is some talk being talked but not walked, so to speak. For whatever reasons.
Today, I just said "forget it, I don't want to ask your mom to babysit, pick up anything from the store for us if she's there, etc. for at least a good month".
So today I went ahead and did all of my cleaning, and let my son play in his crib while I vacuumed and cleaned the carpet, etc. (he was actually kind of fascinated by it), put on some music, and went about my business. He didn't seem to mind, so I guess I'll just have to muddle through until I get a routine down.
My husband went to Costco for groceries, and then I went to Safeway for the rest of the stuff we needed, and we were still able to play a couple of games of scrabble with each other (online, hahah) before getting ready for bed tonight.
So, all in all, we were fine without a babysitter this evening. It would be nice if we could just have some time to ourselves once in a while, but I guess we'll have to make that for ourselves and not depend on anyone else for it (regardless of their claims of availability).
I mean, jeeze...my own crazy mother is by far more willing to go the extra mile to spend time with my son and our family than my MIL is, or so it seems to me. Maybe that's because I'm her only child and he's her only grandchild...
But yes, you're both right. The key is to stop with the expectations regarding my MIL in general, babysitting included, regardless of what she is saying.
I don't know if my BIL even tries to put her up to taking my niece for the entire weekend, I think she just does it for her own reasons, whatever those might be (my guesses for her true reasons aren't all that generous, so I'll just keep them to myself for now).
But yes, he's too young for preschool or Awanas, so I suppose we'll just have to deal with what we have to work with, which isn't so bad when I let go of the expectations.
Thanks, all of you, for continuing to be my support and "sounding board" when I'm going through these nasty feelings.
:ghug3