I'm the first to admit that I might be somewhat of a wimp at this mom thing, especially in the beginning with the lack of sleep and breastfeeding. Whenever someone asks me if Penelope was a hard baby I say "well, I'm not sure. I think it was a mix. I'm kind of a wimp and she might have been a little challenging" Hard to say when you've only had one. I would sit for hours rocking her while white noise blared from the radio. You can have some pretty deep conversations with yourself at times like that. I remember when I became really skeptical about big families in history. You know, the whole explanation "they had 15 children to help on the farm." That's a huge long term investment before the kid is out there for harvesting. And then there's the "older kids take care of the younger kids" thing. But if you space out a dozen kids during child bearing years, you sure got a lot of little ones tearing your house apart before they can take care of the others. Sure, maybe expectations of kids were different and moms weren't wimps and somehow went out into the field in between all those feedings. I think these reasons might be a little rewriting of history. I've come to the conclusion that the truth can be summed up with "They just didn't have birth control back then". I know times were different, but I have a hard time contemplating Ma and Pa watching their first kid at 6 months old and Pa trying to convince Ma "well, we better get down to business and do this another 12 times so we can outfit our farm in 10 years. " (Eek, that's about as PG-13 this blog has ever gotten!)
But today my thoughts changed. I was cleaning up the vegetable plot to get it ready for planting. Penelope started picking up leaves too. We got her a brown bag just her size.
Maybe I was wrong...maybe it isn't a 5 year investment until kids are able to help out. Not that we actually need free help around the house. She has mastered the job of "Laugh Coordinator" in our house, and I think she'll continue to do well at that job for about 11 or so years when she will then move onto "Eye rolling Executive"
Maybe I was wrong...maybe it isn't a 5 year investment until kids are able to help out. Not that we actually need free help around the house. She has mastered the job of "Laugh Coordinator" in our house, and I think she'll continue to do well at that job for about 11 or so years when she will then move onto "Eye rolling Executive"Good thing she isn't in danger of being laid off as "Laugh Coordinator" because she didn't do well as Gardening Apprentice. Once her bag was half full, this happened:
At least she couldn't tip over Mommy's bag.
We let her finish her chores of giggling and playing. I think it is very fortunate for both me and Penelope that we weren't born 100 years ago.
At least she couldn't tip over Mommy's bag.
We let her finish her chores of giggling and playing. I think it is very fortunate for both me and Penelope that we weren't born 100 years ago.
4 comments:
I think that she is the cutest and best Laugh Coordinator ever.....at least she has the basic idea of helping in mind.....she just didn't want to deprive you of the thrill of doing the whole job! ;-)
What a great blog. I'm sure Princess P is the best Laugh Coordinator in the world, but remember it's a team effort and she has a great team. Keep laughing.
Well maybe if you presented the Laugh Coordinator with a Performance Review and offered her an Incentive Program including a Jr. Assistant, she would be more willing to do the work and not dump the leaves on the driveway.
she definitely looks like a laugh coordinator- always so smiley! Funny post!
Oh, and it was so funny that you wrote on my blog about one of your best moments being when you and Chris walked home in the rain in Rome because that happened to Dan and I on our last night and it was hilarious trying to smoosh under one umbrella and get home. I completely understand that idea of feeling like you are in your own private city. Sigh... wish I could go back again soon... :)
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