Pinballing is the only word I can come up with to describe this weekend. You know those periods where time simply does not belong to you bouncing along from one event to the next? Where there is so much to do and so many places to go that nothing on the to-do list gets done. For instance, I wrote "get poop off bathroom wall" and it's 12:09 on Sunday night and I still haven't gotten it done.
Statistics: Friday school volunteer, kindergarten parent lunch, volleyball clinic, lacrosse game, football game, karate class, 5 (yes, 5) soccer games, hockey learn to play, Girl Scout April Showers (shoot me now), church with John's parents, brunch, science fair project, reading project and a birthday party. It's the by-product of 4 kids. Each of them does one-two things and suddenly you're driving around all weekend. And I would add that I am driving around with a "check maintenance" light so there goes another thing onto the to-do list.
Two great finds: at the soccer games we saw the new playground surface at Epiphany. It's that nice spongy surface now. Gone are the horrid little pebbles. Raise your hand if you've ever gone to Epiphany and had a kid 1. lose something in the pebbles or 2. Come home so filthy that a black ring developed in the bathtub.
And the birthday party. I muttered to myself as we walked in that we should have skipped it. Too much going on. But for little Mimi about whom the weekend does not evolve around, it was the most awesome thing ever. Poor kid had never been to the baby pool at the Carondelet YMCA. In fact, I seriously doubt she's even spent that much time in a baby pool, let alone one with a slide. We just don't do that thing much anymore. Our pool doesn't have one and I cannot think of the last time I took the anyone to a baby pool. Her joyful shriek was so cute and she did that slide no fewer than 50 times.
Now I feel guilty. How much else has child #4 missed? Did I somehow also forget to take her to the zoo, or to the Magic House (no, but you get the point). One thing I didn't forget was to check the boxes of her sisters' old clothes for a swimsuit. Pretty cute for a hand-me-down dating to 2005.
It is true the first child gets more attention. The next less. We only had two, but I can imagine with each it lessens. Heaven knows being a parent seems a lot about guilt anyway. I look back (oops, sounding old) and remember things I wished I'd done differently with each. Also, a few regrets. And, more than one, "What was I thinking?!" Yep, I do get your point.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the share.
~Keith,
Circle Blue