Simple Times

I can remember a long time ago when life was simple, even though I had four small children. Ben was 4, Marissa was 3, Emily was 2 and Xiomara was a baby. Those were the days of "Benjamin the director" and life was truly simple (in a broad, general sense). Ben would tell the girls what to do and they would do it. He would do all the pretending and decide who was what part and what they should say and where they should go. And the girls did it happily. They were just happy to be playing. Those days are gone and it's kind of sad, although good too. Ben will come up with an idea and try to enlist the girls to play along. Marissa is usually in but Emily and Xiomara have paired up now and sometimes they aren't interested. The other day Ben wanted to play baseball. He kept inviting and no one came. Finally Marissa said she would play but that wasn't enough. He needed more players so he would say things like, "If you don't come to practice then you can't play in the big game." Emily would respond with, "That's okay." I am glad that the girls are using their own imaginations and doing their own things but it's also sad because Ben is used to having a following and so I'm sure it's hard on him to play alone sometimes. It's part of life and we'll all learn and grow but I just realized that we have moved on to a new phase in our little family.