A Brody Afternoon

This year, I put Addie in afternoon kindergarten with the hopes of having uninterrupted quiet time each afternoon while the littles napped.

I dreamed big.   With two hours, the possibilities were endless.  Laundry!  Blogging!  Reading!  Meal planning!  House cleaning!  This was IT!  My chance to become the on-top-of-things mom I've wanted to be all along.

The littles?  They had different plans.  I have from noon to three o'clock while Addie's at school.  In order for them to get a good nap in, I have to put them down fairly soon after getting Addie to school.  But that's too early for Brody, and he's fought it every day.  If I wait too long, then I have to wake them up to pick up the big girls from school, which results in two grumpy little kids.  So each day for the last two weeks, I've experimented with different times and scenarios, only to be frustrated that I didn't end up with those coveted quiet minutes I dreamed of.

Today, Chloe went right down for a nap when we got back home.  She was zonked from a busy morning with friends.  But Brody had energy.  Lots of energy.

We read books, played trains, watered the flowers... all the while I warned him he had one minute until naptime.  And every minute after that, he'd look at me with his big brown eyes and hold a finger up and say, "One minute, Mommy."

Well, that "one minute" turned into NO NAP.  We made cookies instead.  But I was perfectly okay with that.  It's not often I get Brody alone, and the one-on-one time with him was really fun.  He's such a sweet, spunky, tender-hearted little guy.  It just might turn out that scheduling afternoon kindergarten for Addie means lots of quality time with Brody.  I feel a little bit selfish when I think about how much I planned for that time to be all mine.

But I also feel like our sweet time together today was a gift from the Lord.  After a really tough day yesterday, my afternoon date with Brody today was a reminder to me of what a gift he is.  Today, I took special note of his pudgy fingers working to put those train tracks together.  I watched his long red eyelashes brush his cheeks as he looked down to study his next lick on the spatula.  I smelled his sweaty little boy hair as he leaned on me while we read a book.  I delighted in his laugh when the hand mixer spit a bit of chocolate dough right on his nose.  I memorized the scrape on his knee that will be gone in just days.  It was a really special time.

The laundry can wait.  Blogging, reading and meal-planning can wait.  But lazy afternoon dates with Brody aren't going to last forever.  I think for now I'll just enjoy them... enjoy him.