My day started relatively calm enough when I stopped at my daughter’s house to spend the day looking after my 4 year old granddaughter and 8 month old grandson. I thought is would be reasonably easy since the Olympic Games are on and she is going to get a gold medal in every sport. She is adamant that she can win it all.
After her parents left, she decided that we could have a very productive day. We could clean the kitchen, have a snack, watch The Backyardigans, make lunch, feed Nicholas, make sure he had a nap, pick up Nathaniel (he is the oldest and 7 going on 90), go to IGA and play in the snow. I looked at her in wonderment. The list was detailed and she was sure we could get it all done by 2:00 p.m. before we left for the school. Oh! and in case grandma forgot, we needed to leave at least 20 minutes early so that we can get to the school in time. We had to be at the school before the infamous bell (my term not hers).
So the end result when we look at the actual progress for the day, we did two loads of dishes in the dishwasher, we watched The Backyardigans (two episodes), had bear claws for a snack (with orange juice) at 10:30 sharp, woke Nicholas up from his nap, played with him, made lunch, cleaned up behind ourselves, put Nicholas down for a nap after lunch, and then had a 1 hour break. She made sure that we reviewed our list twice as we went along. We picked up Nathaniel on time, walked home, went to the store, played in the snow and then watched the Olympic Ski Cross event. She was sure Ashleigh would win after all it is her name.
The nugget is “even at 4 years old, you can be organized. It doesn’t mean your bedroom is clean but you can certainly organize the adults in your life. She will run my company some day and have a gold medal.”
