BecauseISaidSo

This past weekend, I watched my best friend's children. Here are a few lessons, reflections and commonly heard phrases from the weekend with a 7, 5, 4, and 16 month-old...

• Note to self...ice cream close to bedtime...baaaaad idea.
• The 365 daily goal is to wear your child out before they wear you out.
• "Wellll, mommy doesn't do it like that..."
• How is it possible that someone less than 3-feet tall can have that much energy.
• "Mommy let's us..." any imagineable activity that a child wants to do at any given moment.
• "We don't have to..." any imagineable activity that a child doesn't want to do at any given moment.
• "Well, sometimes life isn't fair" in response to "uhhhhh, that's not fair." Where did that come from?
• A bad babysitter forgets to bring water or other type of beverage to the Adventure Playground.
• You know it's time to leave Adventure Playground when the children are dehydrated, one child "really needs to go potty," and there's been a diaper explosion resulting in diaper changing on a public park bench. Send me the psychiatry bill.
• What goes in, must come out. Note to self, there might be better options than oatmeal and yogurt.
• How is it that no one has invented anything better than a diaper?
• Variation on that theme: Why is a wipe only 6" x 5"?
• I know why patience was specifically highlighted as a virtue.
• And, although the phrase, "Because I said so..." was never used, I have a much better understanding of how that phrase came to be.

The above is said all in gest. We really had a lot of fun. Truly. In all seriousness, these are the four most well-behaved children ever. If you ever have the pleasure of watching children, I hope they're as good as these four. I will miss them dearly!