I had my three ‘little’ over for most of the day yesterday. The littles range from 21 months to 5 and 1/2, two boys and a little girl who very clearly has a mind of her own. I love them dearly. But they are inconvenient.

Like most kidlets their size, they love to run and play, so naturally, on a beautiful morning like yesterday, they wanted to go to the park. I had a painter outside, lunch to cook, and deadlines to meet. Things to do and people to manage. So I did the responsible thing … and we went to the park. Ran about, played tag, discovered I can still fit down the slide made for kids (the swings not so much though), and generally ran around and got tired. Had to carry the littest home, which was inconvenient.

Everyone was starved when we got back and needed lunch. And littlest, at nearly 2 is going through her picky phase, so just tossing anything in front of her wasn’t going to cut it. Though it was tempting to just let her eat an entire bag of goldfish crackers for lunch, I pulled out the noodles and milk and cheese and made their favorite from scratch mac-and-cheese. Which was inconvenient.

When it was (finally) ready and I put it on the table for them, the spoons and forks I’d carefully put on the table were ditched in favor of fingers leaving them covered with cheese from elbows to ears. And licking their fingers after asking for seconds. Oh the mess! So many fingers and elbows and ears and noses to be cleaned. It was inconvenient.

Nap time came around and the two littlest went to bed, leaving the eldest at loose ends. He found a box of playdough toys in the kids’ room upstairs and dearly wanted to play playdough. Guess what was missing from the box … yup, that’s right, playdough. Don’t it just figure. Poor little guy, it made no sense to him how there could possibly be a box of playdough toys with no playdough in sight. So off to the internet we went and found a recipe to make up a bunch of playdough, in his favorite color (orange) for good meausre. It was inconveneint.

After naps, their momma picked up three well-fed, well-rested, well-played littles. The eldest declared he’d had the ‘best day ever’. Even though it was all very inconvenient.

Inconvenience is a funny thing . It has a way of looking like something difficult or annoying or not in the plans. But really, it is just a chance to love someone very well. I hope my kids and their kids will always be inconvenient and allow me to be a little inconvenient for them, too.