Perspective

"Mommy, thank you for driving the no-traffic way," says G.

"You're welcome." I have tried hundreds of times to explain that I don't actually ever choose to drive in traffic, but the traffic just gets in our way sometimes. She struggles with the idea that the rules of the road dictate where I am going. She must think me awfully powerful, I decide, to be able to go where I want without regard to other cars.

She frequently also complains that I am driving the traffic way and asks me to drive on the wrong side of the road.

But this is new. "Mommy, why are we always the last car?"

"Even though you can't see them, there are actually cars behind us," I explain.

"No there aren't!" Incredulous.

The classic example of "it's a matter of perspective."

Just like my parenting journey. I find myself daily hauling around a baby who needs to be rocked and bounced to sleep, who puts everything into her mouth (sand, dirt, razor blades - it's all fair game to her), and who has secret radar which wakes her up if I try to leave her sleeping in bed. And because I have done it all before, it seems like hardly any trouble. In fact, I feel like taking just one kid out for an errand is easy-breezy.

Had I not experienced this whole thing twice before, it wouldn't be so familiar, so business as usual.

Of course, I am still adjusting to getting spit up on ten times a day. The other kids didn't do that!