I had the pleasure of seeing what it would be like to have 4 children for the day. My friend Jenn's kids Abe and Jude spent the day with us. I was nervous about how I would entertain all of them all day.
They were dropped off by 9 am and were scheduled to be picked up at 4 pm. At 10:00 am Abe asked me to call his dad to see if he was on his way. I tried not to take it personally.
I decided the best thing to do would be to walk the kids over to the park and let them play until lunchtime. Naptime would follow and then more playtime and then pick up. I hope we are all not ready to kill each other by the time 4:00 gets here.
We walked to the park and one of the neighbors drove by us and was staring at us. She passed by us again on our way back home. This time she stopped to ask me if I needed help because she thought I was having car trouble. Nope. Just taking a walk with 4 kids in the suburbs.
Before lunch Abe and Aidan started to negotiate naptime. This is one thing that just really burns my toast. Toddlers, let me just tell you that you will be taking a nap EVERYDAY. It is not up for discussion. The word "nap" sends chills down my spine because it is supposed to be a treasured "mom-time" and it is instead a crap shoot. I informed Abe of something that Aidan already knows, but chooses to ignore...I have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to napping. Don't ask me about naptime and I won't tell you that I don't care if you don't sleep, just please keep quiet for approximately 1.5 hours. THANK YOU.
Everyone napped except for Aidan. When the others woke up we went out front and painted and drew with chalk on the driveway. The kids all had a good time and until it rained, we had a masterpiece on the driveway and sidewalk.
