My Little Lady-In-Waiting

My almost three-year-old is testing my patience.

Daily. Okay, maybe it's hourly.

A Lady-In-Waiting is a lady appointed to attend to a queen or princess. The other day, I was organizing Madilyn Grace's books when I ran across the book, Lady in Waiting for Little Girls: Strengthening the Heart of Your Princess by Dede Kendall. I just had to stop and read it myself because Madilyn Grace was doing something else. As soon as I read it, she came into the room and asked me what I was doing. So I took a moment and read the book to her. My daughter did not ask me what exactly a Lady-in-Waiting was. But apparently she liked the sound of it so much that now waiting is all I ever seem to do. After all, she is my little princess, right?

Sadly, my patience is not as boundless as it might be.

Here is a partial list of the tasks that cannot possibly be done in less than 30 minutes and without an elaborate ritual...

• Choosing clothes/Getting dressed for the day: First we must have a "favorite colors" guessing game or a "guess what shirt I'm thinking of...?" game. Or usually she wants to wear something that matches what Mommy is wearing.
  
• Brushing teeth: She must brush, then I must brush. "First, count to 20," she will say before handing the brush to me as I slowly pull out my hair.
• Putting shoes on: Thank goodness they are slip-ons. Sometimes, though, they are sandals. Here we fall victim to "I'll do it myself" syndrome. Even putting the strap through the little slot and pulling it tight enough . It takes For-Ev-Er.
• Getting into the car: Not getting to the car... just into it. She has to do a super-jump and climb into her car seat, smoothing the back of her shirt just so. Then she has to have whatever toys are in sight right then and there, before I can even buckle her up.
• Getting out of the car: We are usually searching for a lost item before getting out -- a book, barrette, or toy. If she ate anything while we were in the car, then we have to clean that up before we leave the car.
  
• Choosing a book: I love to read to her, but often 20 minutes of looking will have her settling (finally) on a book with 6 pages.
  
• Any meal: She's a picky eater, so she will nibble on whatever we put in front of her. After a few chews she says, "I don't like it." Then we have to go through our whole family and have her take a bite for them. We start out with, take a bite for Mommy, take a bite for Daddy, and so on until it is all eaten up. Whew! Who knew feeding a toddler could be so exhausting?
  
• Bedtime: Each night I have to kiss the bears, baby dolls, Dora, Boots, and blankie before I can kiss her. Then we say our prayers and sometimes she skips a whole lot of it, so we have to say it again. Usually it takes about 3 times before we can FINALLY go to sleep.
  

Let's face it, by the end of the day, I'm exhausted. My sweet, darling girl has figured out how to monopolize my time and attention as often as she can. I get exasperated with it, quite honestly. I wonder when she will ever just stop playing all the time.

And then I think, What Is Wrong With Me??

She's almost three. And playing your way through the day is what age three is all about. It's also about asserting your independence (which has issues of its own -- trust me.) But mostly, it's about operating on your own "schedule" and doing things in your own time.

And then something happened yesterday while I was cleaning my house that made my parental hypocrisy meter top out. I was cleaning the bathrooms when my daughter came up and asked me to play with her in her kitchen. "After I'm done with cleaning the bathrooms," I told her. She waited. She made conversation. She made up a game to make the waiting go faster, which I played with her as I cleaned. Finally, she left for a few moments and returned.

"Are you ready to play now, Mommy?"

It hit me that I was "playing" in my bathrooms while she patiently waited for me, doing whatever she could to spend time with me. (And also, I am an idiot for making her wait like that.)

So I stopped cleaning, because I was done, and we had one heck of a cooking party in her kitchen.

We played for a long time, but it was fun, so that makes it time well spent. In the end it was my own little Lady-in-Waiting who taught me a lesson about patience and being considerate. And about making time to play.

Still Growing in Christ,
Tanya