Sometimes Two is More Than Five

My three older children went to a Vacation Bible School each morning this past week, and first I should say that perhaps I should write a post on the child who wouldn't leave my side for the first three years of his life, but who, now at six, happily trotted off to his class and stayed for three and a half hours every morning AND who sat dejectedly on his bed last night lamenting the fact that the week was over. But that pretty much sums it up, and I would like to say to any detractors of the attachment parenting philosophy, "'Independence' my...ahem...big toe. He's turning out just fine."

Anyway, when I dropped the kids off in the morning, I returned home with the two youngest (naturally), and I admit a feeling of alarm at first. It's been a long time since I've had just two preschoolers for that long of a time, and believe it or not, that can seem more daunting than having a all five kids in the house. One of the dynamics of a large(ish) family is that they all entertain each other - even when "entertain" seems like too nice a word, and "fighting each other to the death" might seem more appropriate. I certainly try to work in some one-on-one time with each of them, but most of the time they play together, learn from each other, keep each other company, and yes, torment each other. But the bottom line is that even when it seems like that don't even like each other, the fact is that when one or more of them is gone, the others don't seem to know what to do without the absent parties, and that was true this week. While Scarlett was less affected (even though her older siblings are often employed in the task of entertaining her), Chase really didn't know how to be without them. I thought we could do some fun things together that we can't do with everyone, and we did some of those, but most of the time he was just restless, and a restless Chase is no small amount of work. If I wasn't very active in keeping him busy, he was looking for someone - anyone - to play with, even waking Scarlett up from her nap once when the idea of being the only awake child in the house was just too much for him, I guess. And so when he was climbing all over me while were Skyping my mom one morning, I sighed, "Sometimes two is more than five."

Then again, sometimes two is just two. Because one of them can't really talk yet, there was significantly less squabbling each morning. We went to the park a couple of times and I was able to play with just the two of them, rather than having to constantly scan the area to do a head count. We went to the store a few times, and if Chase wanted, for instance, a $1.50 play ball in a display case, I could say, "Sure, why not?" (Anything times four or five really adds up, so I usually say no.), not to mention the fact that it's ridiculously easier to get two children through a shopping trip than it is to have all five in tow. Anytime we went somewhere, in fact, it took all of five minutes to get in the car instead of thirty. And lunch at Chick-fil-A costs ever so much less!

Ryan, the once-attached-but-now-independent one, asked last night if there was anywhere else he could go to VBS. Hmmm...interesting idea. Because sometimes two is more than five, but sometimes it isn't...and all in all it was a happy week for everyone.