Torn in two

There are certain events in a parent's life when you can't help but realize that life as you know it has just changed forever. The day your baby learns to roll or crawl and suddenly becomes mobile. The day you bring home baby number two and no longer can focus solely on one. The day your child starts school and suddenly must follow rules and schedules other than your own.

This is going to be one of those days.

Sydney has her first dance class. At the same time AJ has his first soccer game of the season.

How can I possibly be in two places at once? (And technically, I should be in three places, because all this starts while I'm still supposed to be at work.)

It's not a matter of getting the kids to where they're supposed to be. Jeff, thank goodness, was able to take a few hours off work, so he will take AJ and I'll take Sydney. But I want to be able to watch them both, to be able to share in their excitement and know what they're talking about when the evening is done.

Over the years I've listened and sympathized with friends who have struggled with this same situation. (It gets even more challenging, I know, when the kids' events start taking place out of town so you have to figure out how to be in multiple parts of the state at the same time.) I've grimaced at the thought, knowing my day would come. But I've never actually thought about how I would handle it.   

Both kids are so excited about their respective events. AJ insisted he needed extra practice at home last night (after an hour-long practice with his team) so he will be ready for the game. It should be an interesting one to watch. This is the first year the kids will be assigned positions, so the last practice included lots of instruction about who can go where on the field. I'd love to see how much they remember.

Sydney, meanwhile, has been asking to take dance lessons for months. I put her off saying she needed to be four. And then put her off a little longer saying there weren't any dance classes offered until fall. But when I learned of a three-session class available in Esko, it seemed perfect: a short commitment that would reveal whether Sydney really is ready/wanting to learn to dance, or if she just wants to dress up and twirl around. I didn't know at the time that those three dance lessons would all take place on the same nights AJ had soccer. I just got confirmation yesterday that enough kids had enrolled for the classes to take place. Sydney was so excited to hear the news that she of course had to practice her ballet last night in the living room (thus the above photo.)

If I'm remembering the Old Testament story correctly, wise old Solomon once threatened to cut a baby in half in order to identify which of two arguing women was the real mom. Perhaps another way he could have figured it out would be to see which of the women had the ability to divide herself in two to be in two places at once. That, I'm learning, is the test of a real mom.