I LOVE being with my kids. Jon and I don't go on many dates and we don't mind being all together. I'm not saying that if you do go on weekly dates and don't loooove being with your kids all the time that you love them any less, I just really don't mind it. So, what I'm getting at is I don't really miss ME time. Yes, when the kids go to bed and I am not chasing someone or can go to the store alone I appreciate it, but I don't miss it. I do miss having things that I know are mine. Not because I love things, but it would be nice if I could put something down and go back to that place and find it, still there, in the condition I left it.
As you know, I'm not Pinterest organized - at all. I make piles. I actually spend way too much time looking at Pinterest, pinning all the organization ideas I should be doing - and I have probably gotten to...one of them. I'm hoping this is most people - but deep down I think it's just me. Now that I have kids, I feel even more horrible that I'm not more organized. I do NOT want them to be a pile person or to put stuff down everywhere like I do, but it is hard to change. Unfortunately, my daughter is that person. From the time she could walk (probably before), she has gathered things and put them from place to place (hence the nickname: Transporter). She just has. We did NOT encourage her to do this - and now I wish I could make it stop.
Pretty much every single day when I come home from work, I walk in and after saying hello with plenty of hugs and kisses, I notice what has been moved, what shouldn't have been touched, and/or what things are damaged, ruined, or destroyed. Jon on the other hand has no idea what I'm seeing. It is amazingly hard to separate something that your 2 year old has done from something that you think your spouse should have NOT let them do. I know it is essentially Charlotte. She touches EVERYTHING. Despite my best efforts to create activities just for her, give her tons of play space and toys to play with, and her own bedroom full of things - she still feels the need to find every single little thing that I have put down somewhere. Even when I try to put things in a place I think she can't get - somehow, she gets her tiny little hands on them. I then, sadly, had to create the rule that if she touches something that doesn't belong to her, she gets something of hers taken away. The first time this happened - we got tears (which, generally when you set a rule for a 2 year old, you know it really got to them if they cry!). After that, she would just hand things over - even her lambies! That was really annoying. I'll walk in from work and just get the comment, "I didn't do nothing." (Yes, I know that is incorrect grammar - she's 2 okay!?) Then she'll proceed to show me what she touched and hand one of her belongings over. Uuuugh. So now, in this house, you know that if you ever have to ask the questions, "What happened to this?" or "Where'd that go?" - you know, it was the Transporter...who may be earning a new nickname soon.
