Jasiri

Despite how hair-raising the title of this post sounds, this weekend was one of the most enjoyable I’ve had in a while. My sister and I have this new (brilliant) arrangement. Now that we live in separate homes (yes, I moved recently!), we alternate weekends with the kids. This weekend I was on baby duty. And on top of having my 8-month old and her 2-year old, my mom dropped off my 14-year old sister and my 11-year old niece. We had a full house of estrogen - from baby to adult .The dreary, cold rainy days of the latter part of last week, segued into a bright, colorful, and unseasonably warm weekend. My mood tends to be affected by the weather. We were blessed to have the rain, but too many consecutive dreary days, and I get slightly depressed. We didn’t do much, it was a lazy weekend. This is pretty much how it went: We opened the doors and let the breeze flow through the house, and opened all the blinds to let the sun shine in (I despise dark homes, and I don’t like artificial light). My daughter was Ms. Curious Cruiser (as usual). She was in everything! Crawling from room to room, zoning in on the tiniest piece of lent or paper on the floor and then trucking across the room to taste-test it. My niece (the 2-yr old)…well, what can I say about her? She is just a rambunctious little firecracker! And I swear her vocabulary is way beyond that of an average 2-year old. She practically talked my ear off this weekend. And although she’s only a year and 9 months older than my daughter (exactly the age diff. of my sister and I ), she tries to be Baby 2.0’s mommy. She’s always telling her, “No, you can’t go over there,” or “Get down.” And one of the funniest things she does is put up the peace sign (2 fingers) and says “deuces.” She is so hilarious! It was great having the older kids here because they kept the younger ones occupied while I (tried) to get a little work completed. But they were so into BET, MTV, and The N that at times they were just glued to the TV and didn’t hear a word I said. I had to create a makeshift baby barricade to keep Baby 2.0 out of those forbidden places. Hey, being a mom is just as much about creativity as anything else. I think what made the weekend so wonderful (besides the weather) is the fact that I just slowed down and relaxed. My computer use was minimal, and I just played, played, played with the girls. It was a very joyful couple of days. But I admit, the arrival of Sunday evening and the kids’ moms coming to collect their children was welcomed with a sigh of relief. Again I reiterate - parenting is the toughest job in the world! And I ask parents of multiples, particularly those with children close in age, how do you do it?