Alone Time

Recently, after months of my office stuff strewn about the basement and months (but a few fewer months) of Hubby's office being torn apart, I finally got fed up with the general mess that consumed the entire house (mostly because without my office as a repository for all the household managerial stuff, it was all over the kitchen, which then over-flowed to every other place around).
So, I've had my office 'back' for about a week now, and by back I mean that I have a corner in Hubby's office, which is now all nice and clean (there's enough space for me to vacuum the entire room decently for the first time).
Anyhow, as the now shared office is in the basement, and the basement is not babyproof I find myself with a dilemma. The problem is that I can no longer work on my computer and watch my child at the same time. Well, I suppose technically I could if I took the laptop back upstairs with me, but there are advantages to not doing so.
I discovered, the day after I got everything finished, that if I retreated from my child into the basement where I couldn't really hear his screaming anymore (sometimes you just have that kind of day) Monkey quieted down and played by himself. For long periods of time. Without me.
I was in shock, he'd never done that before. And, true to form, as long as he can see me, if my attention is on anything, or on anything other than playing with him, then his is malcontent & whiny.
So, now we have at least of few hours of alone time dispersed throughout the day. I know, I'm a bad mom to leave my 15 month old alone upstairs, but in 15 months he hasn't managed to hurt himself, so I figure I've done a decent job of baby-proofing his (rather large) play area.
We're both starting to develop some serious cabin fever though. Oi, hopefully it will soon be cool enough that we can spend a few hours during the day at a park.