Just slow down!

School called on Wed and sent Hana home with a little stomach bug at 9am, and she ended up having two sick days this week.  GREAT - My plans for getting things done during their school days just went out the window.  Too bad I wasted my one day alone this week and accomplished absolutely nothing, banking on the fact that I still had 2 days to get my project of the week done (which was to start painting the bookshelves).  And of course, she was acting normal (which means crazy).  Who are these kids that you see on Tylenol commercials who sleep all day and are slow moving?  Mine have never had a sick day like that.  But spending the days with Hana, and without Emi, made me realize how much I was missing the small things with my family. 

My interactions with the girls seemed to revolve around getting ready to go school/work, getting ready to eat, getting ready for bed, getting ready to go somewhere, etc.  I never really slowed down to enjoy just being with them with no distractions until now.  When we're pressed to be somewhere on time (yeah, that never happens) or I had work to finish, or anything else that meant "hurry up and just do XX", I found myself loosing patience with them and yelling.  I felt irritated a lot.  I felt rushed, and like I couldn't seem to get anything done the way I wanted. 

We didn't really have anywhere to go or anything to do until we had to pick up Emi from school.  So every time she said "Mommy, come play with me" I said ok.  I learned that her doll is named Teeny, that she's really good at doing the animal jigsaw puzzle set, and she's really bad at playing the matching game by the rules (she's a little cheater, we are going to have to keep an eye on this one).  At one point, she took all of her shirts out of her dresser which would have really pissed me off a few weeks ago because I'm sure we would have been trying to get dressed to go somewhere.  But today I just went with the flow, and watched her lay each of her shirts out on her floor and pretend that each was one of her friends from school.  She had them all get dressed in their bathing suits for water day (which the poor thing missed because they send her home sick) and had them line up to go outside.  She then brought then all back in when water day was over, and when I said it's time to go downstairs for lunch she folded all the shirts and put them in a pile to put back in the drawer.  See, she really does know how to fold and clean up, she's just been keeping that hidden from us all this time!

I learned that when I slow down to enjoy spending time with the kiddos, I have sooooo much more patience with them.  I have begun to see who I can be with them, and what I have been overlooking and taking for granted.