Benjamin is quite fond of saying, when it is time to do something he’d rather not do, “It’s not bath (or dinner/nap/bed) time, it’s playing time!”  Today, I got to play with him.  Of course, I’ve played with him recently.  But, for the past 4 months or so (has it only been 4 months!) our whole lives have been preparing to move, packing to move, moving, surviving here, and then moving in.  Our play times have been short, often interrupted, and I have been guilty of nearly always allowing my thoughts to stray to my weighty “to do” list.

My play time with Liam has been more consistent — with babies, when they require your attention (which is nearly any time they’re awake) there’s no way to avoid providing it.  Benjamin is at an age where, frankly, he’s easy to blow off.  He *will* play by himself.  He does a great job of entertaining himself, so I’ve been letting him.  (I’m not happy about that, but that doesn’t change it.)

Things are really, truly, starting to settle down.  I can tell, because Benjamin and I played for an hour and a half this afternoon with no interruptions.  (Liam was here, too, but he mostly watched from his exersaucer.)  We played legos, we played school bus, he played hockey with his golf club (sorry, Uncle Peter).  We read stories and played games on my iPhone.  I had forgotten what it was like to spend those long spans of time “just” playing.  It’s wonderful.  We’ve been so busy, and there has been so much to do, that too much of my “play” time has been spent multitasking.  There’s still plenty to do, but the urgency has passed.  Now, it’s playing time!