I may or may not have mentioned this before (I didn’t consult my earlier blog posts to verify this),  but, we now have a toddler in the house.  Some friends of ours needed someone to watch her during the day and since the kids and I are home all day, I offered.   This little gal is a lot of fun!  Kylin was my last little one and he’s now 5’11”.  Not so little.  It’s been a long time since we’ve had a little voice using words that we sometimes need to try and decipher.  We’re getting better at it now, and she’s getting better at being understandable.

It’s definitely a change going from having two independent teens to having someone that you need to remember to take to the bathroom regularly.  Now, I have two highschoolers and a preschooler.  While they do their schoolwork in their bedrooms or the kitchen, the toddler has “Sesame Street” or a “Leap Frog” video in the living room, or playdough at the kitchen table, or story time at the library or at home.  Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Thomas the Train, and Richard Scarry are back in our lives now!  She’s also eager to help, and be included in things.  Several times a day we hear, “I wanna help!” “I wanna see!” “I wanna smell!”

My kids treat her (and her older sister, when she comes over) like the little sister they’ve never had.   My daughter, loves to paint the little one’s finger and toenails, play with her outside, and let her help bake things.

I wasn’t sure how my son would relate to her because he lives in his own little world when other kids are over and tends to hide in his room to protect his toys.  However, he has come out and played with her and she just loves him.

All of the things that I missed by not having more kids, I can relive and get out of my system for a few hours a day.  We have a couple of years to enjoy her before school starts, when she’s too busy for us, lol.

Elizabeth