1, 2, 3...

Every six days Chris has duty. This means that in the morning we take him to work, and we don't see him again until after work the next day. It also means getting up at 5:30-5:45am in order to get him to work on time. Can you imagine, me?, getting up that early in the morning, dealing w/ children, driving w/o swerving, and in general not biting someone's head off? Yeah ... me neither. I have found that I can force myself to be kind and patient and pay attention to my driving, if I have the promise of a Diet Coke. I don't keep Diet Coke in my house most of the time, so if I want some, I have to make a run for it. More specifically, I make a Sonic run for it. I know that I will not tolerate my children's antics without my Sonic run, so we've made it a tradition of every morning that we drop Daddy off for duty, we stop at Sonic on the way home and get "cokes an tots".

Wednesday Chris had duty. This morning was no different than most in that we stopped at Sonic on our way home. I bought our tots and cokes and we went on our way.

At home Alex felt bad. Not just a little bad, he felt BAD. I was dealing with him, but Kairi was impatient for a tot. I finally handed her the sack and told her "1, 1 tot" while holding up one finger. She reached in, grabbed one tot, and repeated back to me "1, Mommy, 1 tot" and held up the number! It repeated several times and I was extremely excited about her beginning to grasp the concept of one.

Kairi reached in and grabbed another tot. But this time instead of showing me she just had one, she said "1,Mommy,1.Thankyou." and tried to run off. She didn't show me her finger, she didn't show me what was in her hand. I was suspicious.

M: Kairi, show me what's in your hand right now.
K: *sigh* Here mommy. Holding out her hand of tots.
M: Kairi, there are two tots in that hand. See? 1, 2. I told you one tot. I'm taking one of the tots.
K: *sigh* 1 tot, Mommy. 1. *held up one finger and slowly, dejectedly, walked away*

That was her last tot. And I'm fully convinced that she now understands the concept of one. :D


To help prove my point, yesterday she dumped a set of computer screws on the table. I scolded her and made her help me clean them up. As she put each one in my hand she counted "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2,". How smart is she?!? Hurray!

Moments like those remind me on a regular basis that the piles of sugar, the dumped mineral powders, the clean diapers strewn about the house that Kairi tried to put on every baby doll she can find, and all the items that have turned up missing in the course of a single day, are worth it. Every single one of them is worth it. Because I get to teach my children! I get to see their minds grow and expand on a daily basis. I get so excited to see Alex as he stands up more and more on his own, knowing that soon he'll be learning to take steps. Yes, I'll cry the first day he walks, but it is still thrilling to get to be here as he learns all these new things. I can't help but get excited as he giggles through "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" because I know that in the blink of an eye, he will be pointing at those body parts and singing along.

I am blessed to have such a wonderful opportunity to be with my children. Of course there are days, shoot weeks, that go by and cause me to question my sanity for choosing to stay home with the kids. But moments like the ones I just described are those that make me love what I do and where I'm at. :)