1 Mother 2 Another

Monday morning was quiet around the house:
Maddie was back at school, my mom was at the hospital with my
grandmother, and I had a huge list of things to get done, which
meant no going someplace “fun” for Cora. Top of my list
was working on our financial papers, because I’m meeting with
our tax accountant on Wednesday to get our taxes filed. Don’t
hate me for being early, because that’s not the point of this
story.

The point is that I was trying to give
Cora some “independent play” time, which could also
translate as “parental neglect” time. I tried to do a
few fun things with her, run into the office for a while, do a few
more fun things, run back to the office, and so on. She’d
resigned herself to the fact that we weren’t going anywhere
for the morning, and I thought she was getting into the swing of
things; we read several books snuggled on the couch, including a
version of Beauty and the Beast which is almost as long as the
stupid movie. We put together a couple giant puzzles, played with
the train table, and so on. For a while, Cora even sat next to me
in the office on her own chair and colored while I worked.


But apparently all that attention was not enough. Cora left the
room and started to play contentedly by herself in the living room,
and I settled in for a few uninterrupted minutes of work. Exactly
nine minutes later, Cora came to the door and said, “Mommy,
can you come out? It’s quite boring out here.”


I couldn’t resist such a charming invitation and resigned
myself to a long night trying to get everything done, dumping my
grown-up stuff to play with my kiddo.


I do fear, though, that I’ve become a bit TOO much fun for
her, and she can’t live without her Mommy toy.