DeLappenings: More Innie Than Outie

Betcha thought I was gonna talk about belly buttons, huh?

Nyope. Nuh-uh. Nada. Nunca.

My innie/outie title of this post isn’t about a belly or a button. It’s about our time spent in the house versus out of the house these days.

You see, m’peeps, there was a time, not long ago (in a galaxy far, far, away, except not at all), for a period of about five-and-a-half years, mind you, when we just had to get out of the house every day to maintain Mama’s sanity.

Because with three tots so tiny for so long, and so close in age, it was just too hard to keep them entertained within the boundaries of the casa.

I mean, you’d think getting the whole hoard of us dressed and out the door and through any errand or adventure with a tiny shred of sanity would be far more trouble than help.

But nope.

It was a reprieve. Every day. For a small chunk of the day.

So imagine my surprise when, all of a sudden, around the New Year, without me truly realizing it, we started spending so much more time just playing and chilling and hanging within our four walls for the day. At least for the period of time when Chica is at school.

And perhaps that’s one of the change-makers—the fact that we have the structure of a drop-off and pick-up to shape our day, so we (or perhaps I) feel better about just being during the non-structured hours.

But I suspect the bigger agent of change is the growth and maturity and independence of m’kiddos—especially my two youngest.

I mean, I’ve had many-a day lately when I’ve had a surreal thought of oh-my-goodness-Little-Man-is-upstairs-alone-and-fine-and-playing-and-alive for a few minutes at a time.

And it’s ah-mah-zing.

I mean, truly, it was more than a minor miracle when, a few months back, I felt comfortable closing and locking the bathroom door for three minutes of potty peace, knowing Chicklet and Little Man could survive my absence.

Because for soooo long, through three consecutive babies, there was always one tot tiny enough to not be left without supervision, even with a sibling around. So this change feels major.

And these two—perhaps the result of neither being the eldest in the household—have always been adept at independent play. Whereas Chica often preferred at their age to have a partner in crime at all times.

So I guess all this rambling is just to say that we’ve had sort of an epic shift toward around-the-house contentedness of late, and I’m diggin’ it.

And I’m diggin’ the imaginative minds of all my babies these days.

The kind of creative play that let us bust out all the legos, build a caste and role-play with princess characters for a straight hour today.

These are such fun (but, yes, still tough) times these days, peeps. And with another starting Pre-K this Fall (don’t even get me started on that), I’m continually cognizant of the preciousness of it all.