Is it really mid-February? My, how time flies when you don't know which end is up!
Emma is officially 4 and wants to be the Queen Bee - I have let her know who the Queen is, but she still tends to slip now and again. She loves to test the constraints of toddlerhood and see what we will allow. Unfortunately for us, Brian and I don't work the same schedule so we must confer on the fly. Here's a conversation we had yesterday on my way home, "Hi, what's up? Nothing. What did you do today with the kids? Nothing, just hung out. The kids did/did not take a nap. Your dinner is in the fridge." Talk about the condensed version! We actually have semi-conversations on the weekend, but only if we can be heard over the kids and the timing is crucial...
Allow me a moment of kidhood that you've all been through - there are three decibels in our house, silence (kids are sleeping), loud and ear crushing screams. At any given time, we must shout over this din in order to have some semblance of a conversation. After saying quite nicely, "I didn't hear you, can you repeat that last 5 minutes?", the conversation quickly goes downhill as frustration at not hearing the actual conversation and the other person's willingness to share the information. The question then becomes, "how urgently do I need to share this information? Is it necessary for the care of the children or a safety issue?" If none of those apply, the conversation ends up in the waste land of non-conversations.
People often wonder why I have shortened my conversations to just a few sentences (my mother and sister are excluded as they say I still talk too much). Just give me the facts, Jack - my attention span now requires you to answer in very short, content rich sentences.
However, I find when I'm somewhere and actually want a conversation, I can't think of a thing to say until that person has left.
My husband, however, still holds out hope that conversation is possible. That's why he actually goes to his meetings and doesn't look like a brain dead dolt. He's a talker and I love that he is (most days).
On another note, Miss Emma and I had planned to make Valentine's day cards made out of construction paper last night. Such high hopes! She didn't take a nap during the day, so before I even got home from errands she was snoozing. So at 6 am, I ended up cutting many, many paper hearts out and instead of glitter and gorgeous layouts - I handed her washable markers and let her have at it.
Ok, I must get back from lunch! Have a wonderful Valentine's day!