This Whole Parenting Thing Just Got Easier

My girls are growing up. Now normally the realization of this would make me a reflective, sappy mess. But today I received two benefits of this whole growing up thing and I am just too excited to be sad. So instead I'll share.

First:
Sarah has now hit the 2 year mark. What that means for me is that both, yes BOTH of my children are now allowed to attend the little mini-daycare inside my grocery store. Today I dropped both girls off and for the first time in almost 4 years shopped with full focus and ZERO stress. AHHHHHHHHH. I have to admit that once my list was completely crossed off and my basket was full, I was tempted to do a little extra perusing just because I could. Since I live in No Man's Land, the grocery store is also the department store, shoe store, furniture store, hardware store, etc, etc. So there were plenty of departments I could visit once I finished up my business in grocery land.

And I no longer minded how long it takes the checkers to ring up merchandise here. This really deserves a blog post all its own. At this store, you don't have checkers and baggers. Nope. Just one person who does it all for you. So they will scan items, bag those items and put those items in your cart. ONE BAG AT A TIME. Meaning, they will scan about 5 or 6 items, stop and bag those items and place the bag in your cart before scanning the next 5 or 6 items. It is really taxing to watch. Especially when there are other people in line in front of you. There was one week that I clocked a full 20 minutes from the time I wheeled into one of the lines to the time I finally swiped my credit card. Not fun with two kids who have already exceeded their limit of patience as we marched through the store for the past 45 minutes. But now? Today? I stood in those crazy long lines sans kids. Which meant I had time to read the covers of all the trashy tabloid magazines and even flip through a People magazine to see all the celeb photos. No whiny kids, just a happy mom who has let her mind completely zone out. Bliss.

As soon as my purchases were complete, I just walked over to the playland where my darlings were fully engaged in a rousing game of house, collected the very happy campers and made our way home. I am now considering shopping for my week's groceries day by day.

Second:
Tonight Michael had to work late. This happens from time to time and while I don't love it, I understand it. What that means for me is wrangling two girls into pajamas, navigating potty time, teeth brushing time, story time and countless other night time routines all on my own. It's doable, just not fun.

So tonight I was upstairs getting Sarah's pajamas on and Claire announces that she wants to try to get ready on her own. Really? Okay baby girl. I am more than happy to let you try. So off she heads to the potty first. She closes the door stating that she needs her "energy". (which translated means privacy--the poor girl can't ever remember that word.) When she comes out she tells me that I have to close my eyes so that I can't see how well she is doing until she is all done. Um, okay.

So I finish dressing Sarah and brushing her teeth. We are half way through Sarah's night time story when Claire walks in fully dressed in pajamas she picked out. (the shirt on backwards) She is sporting the biggest smile I've seen to date and runs to me for a hug. I make all the appropriate gushing statements of pride over her and when I go into her room I find that she has also put her dirty clothes in her hamper. Seriously? This girl has got it down! What a big girl I have.

I am sure I will get sappy over how fast they are growing up very soon, but for now I am giddy. Giddy I tell ya!