Why I Rarely Blog

Leah is really cute, I will give her that. But she does tend to take up all of my time. Maybe I just can't remember, but I don't remember the other children taking over. Max was difficult, but in a crying sort of way. He just always cried. However, when he was the age Leah is right now, I could turn on the TV to keep him happy. And he had George to play with. All my kids had someone to play with.

I think that is the issue. Leah has no one to play with. She is very social and always wants to be around people. She will only play by herself for a couple minutes and then she always comes to find me. Once she finds me, she wants to do what I am doing. If I am cooking, she pulls up a chair and grabs the knife, or spoon (and starts licking it, yelling, 'mmmm, yummy'). If I am exercising, she tries to take away my weights from me. If I am on the computer, she climbs up and starts pushing all the buttons. If I am doing my makeup, she grabs a lipstick and eats it. If I am eating, she yells, 'bite!' while frantically trying to grab what I have.

Don't think I haven't tried to arrange playtime for her. We had a really good thing going. I would drop her off at the gym daycare while I worked out. She loved it. She would wake up and walk to the door and yell, 'Bye, Bye. Slide.' It was a great break for me also. No one tried to steal my weights while I was lifting. But Leah put an end to all of that. She got kicked out of daycare. Apparently, taking toys from the other children wasn't enough. She started scratching them (a habit she learned earlier when the older kids laughed at anything she did). When that drew blood, it drew the attention of the daycare leaders. She received one warning. She was OK for a week, but then she did it again. She is out for 30 days. I had to drop my weightlifting class and start waking up early to work out. I am going slightly crazy.

So now, while the other kids are at school, instead of enjoying all that free time I imagined I would have, I cater to the whims of my demanding daughter. And yes I do cater to her. It is far easier to give in than to fight. I've heard the saying, "You have to pick your battles." I've done that with all my kids. It's just that with Leah, I choose to fight none.

So maybe you can understand that when I finally get my tag-along down for a nap, I do things besides blog.