Our little Miss has been a handful lately. It’s funny to me to see that she’s becoming the more high-maintenance one. If you would have told me that a year ago, I would have never believed it would happen. They would never admit it, but I can see her gma’s and aunties are coming to the same realization. For instance, she is at this very moment trying to pry my arms off of the keyboard, has pressed CAPS LOCK, Ctrl, and Shift about 20 times and is whining/screaming at me in a high-pitched squawk that could be recorded and used for torture technique to extract information from terrorists. Oh, what’s that? Maybe I should get off the computer and pay attention to her? OK, maybe. I’ll be back.

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Now I’m back. She’s been given a granola bar, her absolute favorite snack, and is currently picking small crumbs off and leaving a trail all over our carpet like Gretel, for me to step on with my bare feet for the next several hours until I finally give in and get the vacuum cleaner out. But I’m back to typing for a moment!

You see, I’ve come to the realization that caring for children is not that hard. Now, don’t throw dirty diapers at me, hear me out. I mean, if all I had to do was sit around on the couch and WATCH them, simply keep them out of harm’s way, let them zone out on TV all day–that would not really be that taxing. But, silly me, I actually try to DO something once in a while, and that’s when the children revolt. And by “something” I mean ANYTHING, from putting a stamp on an envelope to pouring myself a cup of coffee to getting dressed. Don’t even mention the trouble I get if I have the nerve to attempt something so lofty as taking a shower, making dinner or posting a blog post. That’s when the little buggers show me who’s really in control here. (FYI, granola bar has been demolished and I’ve had to leave the computer approximately 6 times while typing this post to try to distract Sydney.)

So, in light of this realization, I’ve lately been making an honest attempt to, well actually, go back to that easy concept: caring for the children. Actually BEING with them, instead of having them in the house while I try to accomplish things on my list. Now, this is a constant work in progress for me, as I always have a list and it is always long. But the other day I was trying to update my blog and Sydney wanted to be between me and the computer, of course. So, I abandoned all hope of posting and just let her sit there for a while. She was being delightful and funny and I happened to have my camera in reach, so I tried to take a covert vid of the special moment…not only for all of you, but also for me to remember that sometimes it’s OK to let the list go. Even if that means I don’t blog or cook…or shower.