One precious twerp at a time

Yesterday was genuinely wonderful. I guess I should also say that a little surprisingly. I always enjoy spending time with the kiddos but yesterday was more than that. I must admit that yesterday I had a little bias. I spent a significant amount of my day alone with Ainsley. I rarely get to spend one on one time with her so this was particularly special. In the usual storm of kiddo-dom it seems I rarely get the opportunity to appreciate my twerps individually and I really had a nice opportunity to yesterday.

While all of the children were home from school, both Graham and Sydney remained pretty occupied. Graham spent most of the morning over at DeeDee's house and Sydney spent the morning in the play room working on the computer. That left Ainsley with me - craving entertainment. She started at my feet putting together puzzles as I typed away on the computer. It was not long, though, before she had me down on the ground with her.

You may not know this about Ainsley but she is a puzzle savant. I don't know any other way to say it. She is certainly the only 3 year old I know that can keep herself occupied for hours putting together puzzles. One after the other, over and over again, she just keeps plugging along. When it comes to puzzles she has more patience than I and more perseverance than her mother. She is simply, utterly amazing.

It turns out that Ainsley also had a doctor's appointment in the morning. I dropped Sydney off with DeeDee and we were off for hours of waiting. The bad news is that she Ainsley was diagnosed with strep. The good news was that I had a few more hours to watch her put together puzzle after puzzle. In all, we completed 23 puzzles yesterday. I am not talking about 4 or 5 piece puzzles either. I am talking about puzzles with 24, 48 or more pieces. I helped occasionally but I must admit I spent the bulk of my time cheering her on in amazement. I was incredibly proud. I felt like I won the price cabbage at the fair - my twerp puzzle savant - call the Guinness book of world records. Later that afternoon I would take Sydney to the H/O clinic for a checkup. She and I had the pleasure of passing time by practicing her Korean.

As a side note, I discussed leg pain along with a myriad of other things with Dr. Granger. As I suspected, we will watch and wait. However, that is not the point.

After several hours we were on our way to Tae Kwon Do. Lynley and I performed a kiddo switch and the next thing I knew I was on my way back home with Ainsley. We then played 19 rounds of neighborhood sound bingo. I have to tell you. I really enjoyed it. It was so nice focus on one child and to appreciate her for what she was.

I realize now that I could not see the forest for the trees. Heck, I could not see the tree for the forest.

I have to remember to take one twerp at a time.

That is what purpose is all about.