Strong suit

I have to admit... as much as I love holding and snuggling a new baby... as much as I adore celebrating the milestones... as much as I melt with each belly laugh and sloppy kiss... the infant stage is not exactly my "strong suit."  To be fair, I've been a parent for 6 years, and I'm not entirely I HAVE a strong suit yet.  But anyway...

I love babies, but I don't know what to *do* with them.  It's fun to play for a while, but I run out of ideas after approximately 2.5 minutes... and then I really need to get back to housework.  Thankfully, that stage usually disappears around the time they can walk, and then they can entertain themselves a little bit better (at least while you're at home--when you're out & about, it's non-stop chasing).  And you can interact a little better and... it's just easier.  I just have to get through a few months of guilt over whether I'm spending too much time playing peek-a-boo & neglecting the house, or spending too much time tending the house & neglecting my poor child.

And then came Roo.

He is so sweet and so wonderful... and 14 months old and still smack in the middle of the infant stage.  I sit down with him to do 30 minutes of uninterrupted play/therapy... we go at it for a while... then I check the clock and realize that I still have 25 minutes left.  Are you kidding?!?    We've been doing this for at least an hour, haven't we?

Please don't get me wrong.  I am NOT complaining about spending time with my baby.  I just feel a little bit bad for the guy.  He's the youngest of 3, and none of my kids are exactly "self-sufficient."  His mommy is just barely clinging to sanity as it is, and she isn't exactly spectacular with infants.  And here's this baby, who is going to go through each stage of life more slowly than other kids, and who is going to need a little extra encouragement and play to develop... and his mommy totally sucks at it.  Wasn't God supposed to take this all into account when He put our family together?  And yes, I know that He did and that He knows what is best, but I'm just sayin'... I think poor Roo got the short end of the stick here.

So today my big kids are at VBS, and I'm trying to spend some quality time with Roo AND take advantage of a quiet house, and I just have one question... Any child development specialists out there wanna come over to play?