Taking a time out

So today I was a little bit naughty. And by this I don't mean I had four pieces of chocolate instead of two. I mean that instead of vacuuming the floor and doing the dishes this afternoon I had a play date with Miss K.

Normally when mum heads off to work after school, I stick Miss K in the middle of the lounge room with a huge pile of toys and run around cleaning up so the place is nice for mum when she gets home in the evening. This usually involves a lot of running to and from the lounge room to make sure Miss K isn't getting into anything while my back is turned, and I spend a lot of time tearing my hair out, and Miss K spends a lot of time whinging at me because she wants someone to play with and I'm not giving her the attention that she wants. But today, I decided to do things differently and see how less stressful my afternoon was. First I hid everything that Miss K is not allowed to touch, so that I wouldn't have to say no to her at all, then I just sat in the middle of the floor and watched.

I'm actually ashamed to admit that this isn't how every afternoon is spent for us, and I am going to take steps to remedy this immediately because today was the most relaxed that both Miss K and I have been for a long time. Instead of panicking that there was too much to do and not enough time to do it in, I crawled around the floor and had fun and laughed. I also had a lot of time to look at my little girl in disbelief, because there are still days when I cannot believe how lucky I am that this beautiful child is my daughter. In the past 11 months she has grown and developed in so many ways it is mind blowing. She takes joy in the simplest things like a stuffed teddy or an old computer mouse, and everything is so new and amazing to her. Today we danced together to her little keyboard, and sang songs and wrestled. There were no tears, there was no saying no to her and there was no frustration that I couldn't juggle housework and parenting.

Amazingly, the house didn't fall down around my ears because there was a pile of dishes in the sink, and even dinner wasn't the usual wrestling match it is every other night because we were both in a great mood. I even managed to get the lounge room cleaned up and have a coffee made for mum when she got home. So in the afternoons from now on, the rest of the world is going to have to bugger off because it has officially become mummy and Miss K time. This does mean that anyone who reads my blog is probably going to have to wait a few hours extra each day to read my posts because the computer is not even going to be looked at while there is playing to be done.

Well I need to go to bed because tomorrow is mother's group and my little sister is visiting us, so I need to get my beauty hibernation. See you after my next play date!