10 Minutes

Being laid off during the holidays ain't all it's cracked up to be. I'm caught up on playing Madden on Wii, and have the whole family hooked on bowling on the Wii. And yes, I've read a couple books (Going Postal and The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett). But it is still amazing how much your schedule completely fills up with nothing when you have nothing in particular to do.

Don't get me wrong. DearWife has the kids doing a lot of good stuff. Educational, fun stuff. The sheer volume of stuff they do isn't so amazing, it's that there is always something going on at home. Being a stay at home mom is just relentless. There is no real break. Some days LittleBrother is going to insist he wants to eat a pomegranate "for god's sake!" (as he puts it). And if you don't have that pomegranate, you're going to hear it for thirty minutes.

But there are a few minutes here and there that really make up for it. The other day LittleBrother got up from nap - he waddled unsure of his footing in that just-awake way. He was only wearing his underpants. Normally, he's a bull. A bang you in the head stubborn playful kid. But on this day, he was just a little kid. I went upstairs and picked him up. We went down and sat on the loveseat and I put the blanket over him. He snuggled into my chest and went back to sleep. BigBrother woke up and wordlessly walked downstairs and got under the covers. And we just sat there for what seemed like an eternity.