Finding the time for quiet alone time

The beauty of children is they bring so much life, love and spirit into your life and home. The downside is it rarely calms down, particularly if you have more than one child. While one is playing nicely and quietly alone, the other(s) are often more than making up for the lack of noise and action. The older my children get the more I find myself needing to just "sneak away" for my own quiet time.

I say sneak because my youngest Sarah likes to be on mommy's hip or practically attached to me what seems to be at all times. She is definitely the most attached and just likes to take advantage of time with mommy. She wants to sit on my lap at dinner, sit on my lap watching TV, be in the bathroom when I go...you get the point. So if I say "I'm going upstairs to change" when I get home from work, then I immediately hear the pitter patter (sp?) of her feet behind me, or "up mommy, I want to go with you."

So, I put dinner on and then "sneak" up the backstairs. Just the alone time to get into my comfy clothes is enough to de-compress from the day and prepare for the fun evening to come. Depending on what I am making this often turns into 15-20 minutes, particularly if daddy is home. I will go into the laundry room (which is upstairs...one of my tips) and fold the load of laundry I threw in that morning, or get online in the office upstairs and check my personal email/book email, or even play a game of FreeCell (which I am now officially addicted to).

Eventually you hear "mommy where are you" or someone just shows up upstairs. The good thing is I am really excited when they do that, because I had a few moments to gather myself, shift into full on mommy mode and simply relax.