When Opportunity Knocks

So, as I mentioned earlier, this pregnancy was not an easy one. In fact, looking back now, I feel like I've missed the better part of the past year because I was either in the bathroom getting sick, held up in my bedroom to avoid all the kitchen smells, or asleep on the couch. I was exhausted, hungry (but couldn't keep anything down for the first 3 months), large, and in pain all over. Did I mention large? By large, I mean enormous. People would ask me all the time if I was carrying twins! Hell, even I had the ultrasound techs check twice to see if there were extra babies hiding in there! Anyways, I was uncomfortable and missed out on a lot.

Luckily I have an amazing husband who was extremely patient and a 4 year old daughter who was surprisingly understanding of my inability to interact with her like I normally do.  But I soon realized that it wasn't so much an 'understanding' as it was 'recognizing an opportunity'.  An opportunity that I handed right to her.

Let's go back to the sleeping on the couch part...

Once the school year had ended, I was very pregnant and home alone with our 4 year old 2 days a week when she didn't go to daycare. On those 2 days I did my best to keep her busy and play with her before exhaustion kicked in and Mama needed a rest. Most days we were able to do some kind of Pinterest-y project together like baking or painting or melting broken crayon pieces to make new rainbow crayons.

But some days, when simply doing a search on Pinterest seemed way too ambitious, that craft involved something more along the lines of a large cardboard box, some markers, crayons and stickers. All the stickers. No, we didn't build a cool cardboard fort. I parked that thing in front of the TV, helped her get in, and told her to go to town and jazz it up! Yup, I put her in a box. In front of the TV. A cardboard box, markers and cartoons on Netflix. That's how we got through most of my third trimester. She played in a box while mommy took a short rest.

Before you judge me, this box kept her busy for hours. She loved it! And she made some pretty good drawings in it too! We actually kept in in the living room for a few weeks.

Ok, now is the part where you can judge me.

One time, I'll admit, I actually fell asleep on the couch while she played in that box. I know, I know... How could I leave my 4 year old unattended? I would always tell her "if mommy falls asleep, you need to stay in this room. You can continue coloring and watching your show on Netflix." She's my little rule follower and knows how to work the remote (go ahead, another opportunity to judge), so I was pretty certain she would stick to those parameters.  Except that one time when she didn't... On that particular day she ventured off to the playroom and decorated her "classrroom" with sticker charts on the wall... With glue.

Don't worry. I "fixed" it.

And so, I added more coffee to my daily routine.

Oh, but the real opportunities for her came while I was awake!

4 yo: "Mommy can I have a snack?"

Me: "What do you want?"

4 yo: "Pirate Booty"

Me: " If you can reach it, it's yours."

4 yo: "But it's way high in the cabinet!" [commence whining voice]

Me: "Get a chair from the kitchen table. Push it over to the pantry, climb on up and grab a bag of Pirate Booty."

4 yo: "Really?"

Me: "Yup."

That's right. I instructed her on how to get the out-of-reach snacks all by herself.  Hey, at that point in my pregnancy, getting from the living room to the kitchen was exhausting. I needed her to help out wherever she could!

When my husband came home that day he walked into the kitchen and said "Uh, why is there a chair in the middle of the kitchen?"

4 yo: "Mommy told me I could get Pirate Booty all by myself!"

Hubby: "Oh, really?" (looks at me with disbelief). "Do you realize what you just started?"

Me: "I do now..."

She hit the jackpot that day and it's all thanks to me. Well, actually, thanks to her little sister! Come to think of it, I actually gave them a head start on bonding... Which will inevitably come back to bite me in the ass later on when they team up to seek more "opportunities".  But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.