Tuesday 8 May 2012

Adventures in Preschool Land

My kids are tiny dictators. Whether they know it or not, my life has been sucked into the vortex of kid schedule. Utterly. I sleep when they let me. I eat when they let me. I bathe when they let me. And let's be fair, when you have 4 kids the time for anything is slim. Lately though, it seems like that time has been even slimmer. Maybe it's the fact that spring is clearly in the air. We're waking up a bit earlier, napping a little less, and, unlike the days of our long, dark winter, we're going out. A lot. We're walking everywhere, taking the bus to see friends who live further away, joining playgroups, playing in dirt.

I thought for sure that when we started filling up our schedule with constant movement I'd be tired, cranky, and anxious for our days at home in pjs. Okay, I still loves me a good pj day. That being said, I'm finding those pj days to be few and far between these days, and I'm fine with that. To be honest, these pj days are a lot more fun when I feel like we've earned them. Our winter could be described as nothing less than hibernation. When we weren't wearing pjs it was news. I'm pretty sure that by the time the snow melted both the kids and I were ready to go racing out into the wild blue yonder on the first sunny day. And race we did. Into a nearby field, the walking path, playdates in our friends backyard, and, very soon, hours of fun on the playset in our backyard.

Part of me wonders if the catalyst of all of this is the sunshine, or the fact that baby girl is no longer spending every moment of the day in my arms. She's now napping for 2 or more hours a day, not to mention the fact that she sleeps 12 hours at night (before you think I'm bragging, I absolutely recognise that this freak occurence has nothing to do with my parenting prowess). That's all incredibly lovely, but the real kicker for me is the fact that when she's up she doesn't need to sit on my lap feeding all day. She's eating lots of solid food now, and when she's not eating she wants to be on the floor, crawling around and getting into her own brand of mischief. I'm actually getting chores done quickly with both hands rather than at a snail's pace while holding her on my hip. Now that she's more independant in general we're able to pack up and ship out at a moment's notice. Just in time for nice weather, we're finally able to enjoy the outdoors without baby girl crying 10 minutes into our outing for food or unscheduled nap.

It's nice that their needs have shifted from what movie we watch to what outdoor activity we engage in, so I'm going to take advantage while I can. So we're off to ditch the pjs, put on our shorts and t-shirts, and out the door we go at the next whim of my little little dictators.

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