Mia's latest trend is to comment several times a day on how long something is taking.
"Brooksie...why is it taking Daddy so long to come home from work?"
or
"Brooksie, it's taking a really long time to get to school..."
Everytime she says this, I can hear my Dad (welcome to the blog, Dad) saying, "patience is a virtue" as he did to my brother, sister and me all the years of our childhood...and sometimes does still today.
Now, I'm fairly sure that Mia doesn't know what a virtue is...to be completely honest I'm not even sure that I know what it means. Or maybe it's that I'm just not entirely sure why patience is one. So I do my best not to repeat this lesson of my father to Mia verbatim. Instead I say something along the lines of,
"Mia, it's not taking any longer than it normally does..."
or
"Mia, Daddy never comes home at 10:30 in the morning on a Wednesday..."
or sometimes just,
"Mia, be patient."
I find myself saying this on other occasions as well these days.
Like when Mia wants to know why she can't wear make-up, or chew gum, or drink Diet Coke...
"Mia, be patient."
Or when I don't think I can take 1 more minute of her misbehaving...
"Brooksie, be patient..."
Or when I realize how much Lucy has changed over the last few months. With two teeth and finally enough hair for a teeny little bow, she suddenly doesn't look like a newborn to me anymore. (I'm realizing this just in time, as she will turn 1 in July...) Like when she tries to pull up on her crib to stand...
"Be patient, Loo..."
Or on the way to school the other morning, when Mia piped up and asked,
"Brooksie, why is it just you?"
"What do you mean, sweetie?"
"Well, there's Mommy and Daddy, why is it just you?"
Oh, brother...
"Well, because Brooksie isn't married yet."
"What do you mean?"
....
"Well, Brooksie is too old to live at home with her Mommy and Daddy - "
" - Courtney and Jeff?"
"Right...I don't live with Courtney and Jeff anymore, but I haven't gotten married yet, so it's just me."
Just me...
"I don't know what "married" means."
I KNOW YOU DON'T...YOU'RE THREE.
"Sweetie, Mommy and Daddy fell in love and decided that they wanted to live together forever...so they got married."
"...can I marry Mommy?"
---
So I'm trying to be virtuous and practice patience. Whether it's taking a deep breath and staying calm in the midst of a temper tantrum, soaking in every moment of Lucy's daily transformations, or realizing that it is just me, but that it won't always be...
I'm being patient.
