blogging sporadically

This is what happens when you babysit a toddler.  Not only blogging, either:  Most everything I do is sporadic.  And I wouldn't have it any other way!  That little girl makes me laugh often and loudly.  

I probably should get things done while she's napping, but I often find I am napping at the same time she is.  Or catching up on whatever book I'm reading.  I do think it has worked out well that we have her only four days a week.  This gives me time to read and garden, relaxed time when I am not on the alert for what the Little Princess is doing... although I sometimes catch myself starting to check on her when she isn't even here.  

Believe me, she is on the move all the time, and doesn't miss a trick.  She's happy and contented.  I don't turn my back, though.  She checks all the time to see if I'm watching, and if I'm not, she heads for the "no-no" areas.  Usually if I'm going to a different room, I just tell her to come along and she does.  I don't go to the bathroom alone when she's here, I just invite her to join me.

Some things are more fun to do when Baby is here.  Hanging clothes on the line, for instance.  She wanders around the back yard while I'm doing what I need to do.  She loves chasing the baby chicks, who are growing like crazy.  I caught one and held it up to her face and she grabbed its neck with both hands and stuck the tip of its beak in her mouth for a kiss.  (Yuck.)  Cliff said he would have expected Mama Hen to attack a kid chasing her babies, but she doesn't; she just runs away with them.  The grown chickens, though, aren't allowed within two yards of her and her brood.  When I throw down chicken scratch and call "chick chick chick", the old hens won't even venture near.

Lately "Punkin", as Cliff calls her, has taken to joining me in the kitchen when I'm cooking, which makes me nervous.  She grabs one of my legs and hangs on for dear life.  It's pretty hard to walk from counter to stove to table that way.  Yesterday Cliff took pity on me and came in to play with her and keep her out of the kitchen.  And what did he do?  He showed her how to build a fort out of an easy chair; he tipped over her toy box so she could crawl inside it; he helped her climb onto the couch.  Her mother posted pictures on Facebook today of her doing some of the tricks Cliff taught her yesterday.  

Anyway, when I have free time, like during my three-day weekend, blogging seems to fall to the bottom of my list of priorities.  There is an E-book I need to finish before it vanishes into thin air in three days, and if that happens, I'll never know how they caught the bad guy.  

As for my garden, tomatoes and potatoes flopped, big time.  Blight killed the potatoes early, and will have killed the tomatoes entirely in another week, I believe.  Corn is doing great, so at least I have something out there that doesn't make me ashamed.  Honestly, I'm not too worried about it.    

OK, I'm heading back to my book.  I'm still here and I haven't quit blogging.  Before you know it, the kid I'm watching will be going to school, and all I will have is the happy memories.  And then cows and chickens (and the blog) will resume their position of importance in my life.