Kiddie practice

Last night while saying grace before we had dinner, the Barton included "a great afternoon with our niece & nephew" , which of course made me smile. He knew early on when we were dating that I dote upon little Tanith & Kieran (sorry about the old picture Tan-Tan, but its just so darn cute! :), and quickly learned how much I valued spending time with them, to the point of scheduling other things around my regular weekend babysitting.  So while he may have started out trying to impress me with sometimes joining in with the kiddie outings, either way he has come to include them in his life as well, and I'm so grateful for that, plus its an interesting exercise to see what kind of parents we'll be like someday! 
 
I'm sure all you parents out there would probably say that its not an accurate picture since you don't have the constant  demands of care (nor the proper sleep deprivation!), but my only point is that I can already see a glimpse of how our division of labor might pan out.  Turns out I am much less patient (gee thanks, Dad!) when it comes to the discipline of a whiny toddler, for instance, and more than once I've found myself chuckling in the other room listening to my hubby take the tactic of a reasoned, logical approach to a painstakingly explaining something to a 3-year-old.  I'm probably much more likely to engage the age-old "because I said so!" parental standby after an initial attempt at explanation, which by the way does anyone remember not wanting to take a nap if given the opportunity?  It just kills me that kids so often fight sleep, when adults would shut the door to their office and turn off the lights for a quick snoozer if they thought it would be professionally acceptable.
 
Here's to having a little caffeine jolt this afternoon, and to keeping your head up (literally)! 

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