Intentional Time

After last week's hecticity, I am falling back into the role of 'stay at home mom' - Talmage is sick style.

Talmage took two naps one day and I got in some quality time with Alaska. We made play dough animals and roll played a typical day, she is pretty observant, that one. Our day started with the daddy going to work and the mommy piling everyone in the car to go get the babysitter and then dropping everyone off back at home before going to work. We don't do it that way a whole lot, but often enough to be a big deal, I suppose.  Most often they are going to Tamera's.

Today, C has a home visit from headstart and I spent the better part of the morning cleaning. The whole bit. Sweeping, mopping and vacuuming with the hose along the walls. It used to be that I would do that once a week, regularly. As of late, it hasn't been happening and I have been more often using a wet cloth to do a quick wipe of the floors after the fact that something has spilled and dried and is collecting dirt on it. It felt good to wring the mop out in the sink and swish it deep under the stove, pulling out everything from ramen noodle crumbs to magnets that have escaped under there.

The house looks and smells beautiful and it is absolutely peaceful. I needed to get Alaska and Talmage out of the house as soon as I was done so they couldn't mess it up. We dropped by McDonalds for some lunch because I couldn't stand messing up the kitchen and then headed to the park for a hour before we needed to be back to pick up C from her morning hours of school.

I sat on the bench in the sun and let it warm me up with it's 'almost summer' warmth and watched Talmage and Alaska navigate around the play ground. Talmage made it up a tricky part all by himself when last time we were here he would have needed help. Alaska stayed close and let people know, "Be careful around my baby brother." Which is absolutely hilarious to me because she has only recently started calling him her 'baby brother' maybe for two weeks now and he is quickly blooming out of the baby stage and becoming 'little boy'. Signs that a real baby needs to come along soon, I suppose. So he isn't forever pegged 'baby brother'. I can hardly believe he's been a part of our family for nearly two years. I can't imagine it without him, and at the same time, it couldn't have really been that long?