Friday, July 15, 2011

Two of a Kind

Eleven days ago, my parents pulled away from our house with camper trailing and THREE grand kids in tow.  We were thankful for a chance to be a small family.  The medium people have had a fun-filled, sugar-filled, entertainment-filled, doting grandparents-filled vacation from the 'hood.  Tomorrow they return.

One would think that down-sizing from five children to two would be a breath of fresh air and a time of rest and relaxation.  One would be wrong.  We have learned these past two weeks that parenting two pre-schoolers is every bit as hard as parenting five kids all together.  I should say RE-learned.  We did it once before when the boys were 4 and 2 but WE were oh, so much younger then.

There have been moments we lament not having more one-on-one time with each of our kids.  One-on-one time is hugely overrated.  This leveling of kid to parent ratios has meant that the 75,000 touches, tugs, pulls, jumps, and pinches normally spread between six other people have been fielded by only two.  The 642,984 requests for candy, apples, chocolate, water, orange juice, bicycles, toys, books, tv, attention to silliness, and general whining have also been divided fairly equally between the two of us.  We are worn slap out.

Justus is climbing on my back right this minute making gun noises in my ear.  I am his mom and I love him dearly.  He is the most precious little man on the planet and his smile lights up my heart.  Tomorrow night, I will pawn him off on his big brother and breathe a sigh of relief.

I have missed our three oldest but I honestly don't think the extent of how much I've missed them will sink in until I see them being shadowed relentlessly by their young, needy, active siblings.  I will think to myself that was me last week and I will be thankful for a big family!

;-)