quality time

I made a dangerous choice yesterday, that might mean a lot more quality time with my children. Typically, I try to avoid quality time with them, since they're often sticky and take great pleasure at planting their elbows into my spleen at any given opportunity. Also, I love my eardrums. (disclaimer: this is a joke. I like my kids, even if they are a little smelly)

I got 4 hours of sleep in a row for a day or two now, and it makes me do things like paint the medicine cabinet and make schedules with color-coded activities.

Is it likely that in the near future I will throw all this to the wind and leave little bits of masking tape on the wall while handing my children my phone to engage their minds in mindlessness? Well. Aren't you optimistic?

So today was the first day of the new schedule, and Toby is following it with extreme precision, as I expected. One of the major changes was taking their computer time down to 2 hours a day. (If that still seems like a shocking amount, don't judge. You probably put the empty ice-cream container back in the freezer with only one little scoop left.) So that's one hour in the morning before we do their school and then an hour before dinner.

I predicted stormy weather, with scattered civil wars and lots of screaming, but, like many meteorologists, I was wrong. They actually played all day, with minimal mommy climbing. I mean, I did get an elbow to the face, knee to the gut once or twice, but ultimately the day moved at a brisk and relatively peaceful pace. They did cover many, many surfaces in stickers, and roll Tristan up in a blanket, and fall off the bed they were jumping on multiple times, and there was a pretty solid punch or two, but you know, nothing terrible. So. One day down, 14-20 years to go. We'll see.