Today

Today I babysat my 2 1/2 year old niece for an hour and a half.  My son is 4 months old which means I'm still at something of a loss as to what to do with a 2 year old.  So we colored with (washable) markers.  That lasted all of 7 minutes.  Then we were going to read but she couldn't decide on a book.  Then she noticed my computer so I taught her how to use Paint (rather less successful than real markers because she couldn't quite grasp the idea of pushing the button and dragging the cursor but she kept asking to go back to it later), Word (she knows very well now what the backspace key does), and watched Veggie Tales Silly Songs on Youtube. Then she surprised me by playing quietly with some of my toys for perhaps 15 minutes.  By herself.  This allowed me time to put my son down for a nap and get him up again because he decided not to sleep.

Oh yes, that's the other fun thing in my day: my 4 month old has decided that sleep is for wussies.  He has slept, intermittently, a grand total of 30 minutes in the past 7 hours.  30 minutes.  7 hours.  Of course this makes him grouchy.  Too grouchy to sleep so he wouldn't be grouchy anymore.  These are the times that I wonder if my mother put a curse on me - was I like this as a child?  Better question: how did she deal with having a toddler and a baby at the same time?  Better question: how did she handle 5 kids under the age of 9????  And she did it all without internet help, and she moved away from family before the 5th was born so she was on her own (with my dad) except for church family and never went anywhere without us probably and homeschooled us all (and we all turned out ok and succeeded in school/jobs/family/etc) without going crazy.  And did I mention she plays piano, sings, acts, teaches and directs when she gets the chance?  Right.  Forget the curse - my mother is Superwoman.

I can only do what I can do.  Which includes babysitting for my sister in short time increments, trying new meals for my hubby when I can, falling behind on housework and looking sadly at the dishes in the sink, and loving on my son.  And that's the important thing.  It's what my mom did: love us.  Love us, and spend time with us, and support us in whatever we decided to do.

Thank you for reading my rambling stream of consciousness.  Thank you, Shelbs for putting up with me.  Thank You, God for all the wonderful people in my life and a chance to eat a proper lunch today!

Until next time,

Bee