that's why there are two of us

I'm convinced the best parenting team is a ying/yang balance of strengths. 

While it is true that I sometimes wish Sandi had my same needs for punctuality, neatness, planning and a carefully laid out schedule, it is probably ideal that she doesn't.  It is her more lax ideas about time that allow for spontaneous dinner buffet's in the living room, blanket fort building close to bedtime and blowing up the bounce house when friend's come over despite the effort required to pick it up.

If the world was left to me (and my friend Ange) it would be extremely organized and clean, people would be exactly where they were supposed to be on time with an appropriate snack in hand, their beds would be made, their laundry folded and their winter clothes tucked neatly away until next year.  Despite the fact that there would be lots of well-planned parties, I fear it would be a rather dry landscape of order and discipline and despite my wish to think things would be ideal if run my way, likely timeliness and neatness would soon grown dull.

That is why people like me need a Sandi.

She's dreams up playsets and clubhouses for our kids.  She puts whipped cream on sliced bananas, dons them "banana quarters" and the girls gobble them up.  She advocates for roller skates to be purchased and utilized in the house. 

She lets the kids paint their clubhouse themselves.

(and we wondered why Ella's hair had lavender paint through and through.)

I came home from work to find two paint drenched children in bathtub brimming with filthy, lavender hued water.

All I could think was, "It is a good thing they have a parent who will let them do that" because we all know I would need some pharmaceutical intervention to allow for such an event.