I regretfully admit that sometimes my days off seem endless.  Board games that turn into “bored” games after being played 28 times in a row, never-ending pleads for fruit snacks, requests to play with messy Moon Sand.  The question becomes: how quickly can Mama go out of her mind?

Friends and relatives with older children have wistfully sighed “the early years go by so fast…” and while I believe them, I still have trouble fully living in present.  (How can I not when I am convinced that Vivienne will sleep longer and better as she gets older, just like Lily did?  Really, can you blame me at this point?)  I have heard people lament about their lost time and think that I have already learned the “time goes so quickly” lesson.

Apparently, this afternoon was a much-needed refresher course.

Lily had a meltdown after a four-hour play-date with the neighbor girls (our yard, their yard, their house, our house).  Everyone was starving and I sent the girls home when I started getting dinner ready.  Lily was incredibly sad and would have really rather starved than stopped playing, and became a crabby, furious and crying disaster.  And then it hit me.

This almost four year old will wake up one day and always chose to play with her friends over me.  I need to stop whining about being so tired and not having time to clean/read/watch a movie/update photo albums/etc.

Living everyday for that day itself is important, because, truth be told, it does go quickly.  Why is it so hard for me to do this?  And why do I have to be reminded?

I vowed to change my mindset.  Tonight’s play consisted of puppies and the pound and a dog catcher and a veterinarian who fixed everyone’s cuts and scrapes.  And when it was time to start bedtime, I felt fulfilled in a way that no other task could ever compete with.

Lesson learned.  Again.  (Thank god there is still time to learn!)