You know those huge blue IKEA shopping bags? Every time I visit the store, I buy one. When I take a load of clothes to donate, they come in handy. I use them to haul laundry up & down the stairs. Our storage room is filled with them, holding too small or large girl clothes. Today, I stuffed two of them with toys, clothes, dolls and stuffed animals gathered from all over the house.
I guess having a new baby sister can be tough, but having a new baby sister with a terrible cold is just too much to take. Annika has been acting out a little. How? By covering every inch of available floor space with her belongings. I suppose this is a fairly harmless way to mark her territory, but I snapped. I set crying, coughing, sneezing Lydia on the floor and scooped up every toy, every cute little fuzzy thing I could find, and tossed them in big blue bags.
Trying to keep my cool, I explained again to Annika why it is important to keep the floor clear... safety and so on, besides keeping mommy happy. Demanding that she was not to get another single thing out before the contents of both bags were put in their rightful places, I had a realization; she's three. I helped with the major task, and straightened her room.
Looking around at the job complete, she said, "You did a good job Mommy. My room looks neat and tidy, but this thing here, it needs to be moved just a little to the left."
And then it hit me, just why I forget that she is only three.
