Down to Two

There are just two kiddos at home right now. The youngest two.
2 and 3 years old.
Yesterday afternoon, was quiet, relaxing and strange.
The little ones wanted to play out front riding their bikes and playing with other wheeled toys.
Since there weren't any bigger kids at home, Mr. TheZoo and I stayed out front to watch them.
We put up a couple of camp chairs and hung out in the driveway.
We had conversation. We joked around with each other. It was refreshing and weird.
I began to reflect. Was life this casual and relaxed when we only had two children? The older two.

As I looked back, I thought it might have been, but it didn't feel like it at the time.

Both of us worked, there was day care to drop kids off at and pick up from. There were soccer practices and games, there were all the things that we were part of to go to meetings for and activities to do.

There was the learning how to be parents of two instead of one.

These days we are not on any committees.  We are part of very few groups.  We still volunteer for things, but now they are individual, short term things rather than long involved commitments.

Instead, we raise seven children.
That's pretty time consuming work.

And, it has never happened before, but for a few days, the older five kids are gone. And we are down to two.

They are loving it, and so are we.

We get to celebrate the younger two for a few days.  We got them a couple of treats that they don't have to share.

I had forgotten how far a box of cereal goes when it serves two tiny people instead of seven ravenous ones!
When I was at the grocery store to pick up a couple of staple items, I decided to do something different for dinner. Since I wasn't making a meal for nine, I decided to buy a package of refrigerated pasta. The kind that I never buy because the servings in each package are usually two, and they cost about five dollars each. I would have to buy five of them to serve our family.
I picked up some ravioli stuffed with mushrooms and herbs.
It was so good.
We do serve our kids 'grown up' food, but truly, we also grocery shop frugally.
That means that we don't use many expensive ingredients. Like mushrooms that aren't canned.
Mr. TheZoo enjoys mushrooms a lot.  I used to make stuffed mushrooms. BUT to make them now, for the entire family, would be a cost akin to us eating out.

Bedtime is relatively easy. They are little, they play hard, they are tired at bedtime.  They don't need to tell us a thousand things before they go to sleep.

Mr. TheZoo and I watched two movies last night. Back to back. And we both stayed awake through them.
Wow!
Mornings are fairly quiet.
There are only two children making breakfast requests (the one meal that the children get to make individual choices - within reason).

But, having just the two youngest ones home isn't anything, really, like having only the two older ones.
Now I have voices to miss hearing, and necks to miss hugging, and cheeks to miss kissing.  Now instead of the house feeling full of activity, it feels quiet and empty.

I am pleased to enjoy a bit of 'time off'. I know this is an extremely rare occurance.
But I'm also looking forward to getting back to normal.
Well, what passes for normal at TheZoo, anway.