3 Ginger Snaps

//www.youtube.com/get_playerSo I know that, at 5 years old, charlotte is far too young to be placed in a supervisory role for her baby sister. That being said, every now and then I have a need to step out of the room for a moment and this was one of those occasions. The 2 year old had a serious load in her pants…

So I ask Charlotte if she will hang with Arden for a few moments while I change ruby's diaper. As I stagger up the stairs in a stench induced state of vertigo I heard the typical baby cooing noises that my older children have taken to making when they hang out with their little sister. And whenever I hear those noises I wonder if I sound that ridiculous. But that's a different tangent. I'm going to be out of visual contact for a few moments only and not out of earshot – so I'm not too worried about anything going wrong.

With the 2 year old sufficiently scraped off and waiting patiently for the bath with mom, I decide that I have enough time to get the garbage out for garbage day. I head back downstairs. See that Charlotte and Arden are having fun making dinosaur noises at each other and round up the trash (some of which I had to sort because my very funny wife likes to mix the recycling in to antagonize me from time to time). Trash at the curb income back in and happen upon this scene. If you can't hear Charlotte that well its becaus I kept my distance songs not to interrupt. She's reading the Itsy Bitsy Spider. And I can't help but wonder to myself: if I had stayed in the room, would this have happened? Or was my absence just enough of a gap for my young reader to take a risk, pick up a book and share it with her baby sister?

I will never know – but I'm glad I wasn't there.