Baby Mary was napping the other day and I was trying very hard to ignore my other two kids and catch up with twitter work on my blog. They were making it very difficult. The louder they screamed at each other, the more they whined and complained and flailed about, the harder I ignored them.
Then, finally, Irene ran upstairs and I could hear her sobbing from her bedroom. Colum sat on the living room floor with a colouring book.
“What happened, Colum? Did you snatch that book from Irene?” I asked.
“Well, I wanted to use it too and she wouldn’t let me!” he protested.
“You guys need to either work on it together or take turns.”
“I don’t want to work on it together.”
“Fine,” I said. “I want you to go upstairs and apologize to your sister. Do you hear her crying? You really hurt her feelings. Apologize to her and tell her that it’s her turn to colour.”
“In a minute,” he said.
“Colum …”
Just then Irene started to come down the stairs. She’d heard us talking. “ARE YOU FINISHED ANYWAYS?” Colum just kept colouring. “Okay. Then I’m going upstairs to my room. I’m about to cry again!”
And she stalked off up the stairs and started to wail once more.
“Uh … On second thought, Colum. Never mind about apologizing. She’s fine.”