More lessons

So, this morning I thought I would be the ‘heroine’ and allow the boys to sleep in a little bit, permitting Chelsea to go work out early w/o distractions…

By the time she got back, boys were dressed, semi-fed and I was running around in my pj’s… HOW DID I USED TO MAKE THIS WORK? was all I could think of during that ever-so-long 50 minutes of confusion.

Way back when, I remember getting up early, going to swim, coming back to three sleepy girls, getting them started on breakfast, jump into the shower, make sure they were dressed and off we went – probably in the same time span…

Today did not go as smoothly as I had hoped, and of course, Mimi learned some new lessons:

  • If you offer juice, make sure that you let the 2-year-old help pour or you might as well tell him he’ll starve for the rest of his life – drama ensues!
  • lucky charms are NOT the small tan pieces, it’s only the colored marshmallow bits
  • “let’s get dressed” really means running after said 2-year-old with clothes while he just wants to “read a book”
  • meanwhile 7 year old has decided that while mimi ‘made lunch for him’ to save time, it is totally the WRONG kind of sandwich and he just wants to ‘do it myself – I know how!!’
  • I worked up a sweat this morning and all I could think of was: Dang! I didn’t have my fitbit on??? all those missed steps!
  • childhood independence is AWESOME until the clueless grandparent tries to ‘help’

It appears that I still have a lot to learn in this life…

The first lessons…

Mimi lessons:

  1. 2 year olds are a tempest in a teapot
  2. If you think you’ve got a 7 year old figured out, you’re wrong…
  3. All gas no breaks is a REAL thing
  4. do NOT walk into a child’s room barefoot
  5. Just because you parented ~30+ years ago, does not mean you still know how to parent (and it will probably make you question what you thought you knew…)
  6. be grateful for every hug and kiss you get and ‘mimi’ you hear
  7. PATIENCE TAKES PRACTICE
  8. breathe…
  9. when in doubt – take them outside and give them water to play with
  10. put yourself in timeout occasionally – seriously…