Lost In The Shuffle

I am terribly guilty of blaming the collective crowd that is my children for chaos and misbehavior.  There's four of them and it's pretty easy to lay a blanket of blame.  The sad truth of the matter is that I have three very difficult, emotionally draining, attention demanding children.  Hey, I love them, but I'm dealing with honesty right now. 

But then there is Hannah Grace.  She has always been easy.  She was a clam baby, who rarely cried and easily kept herself entertained.  While I was busy rescuing her older brother from his death-defying feats and restraining him from mass destruction, she cooed quietly on the floor playing with baby toys.  She was the easiest to potty train and wean.  She basically taught herself to read.  She rarely complains and  I can't remember her ever throwing a punch at one of her siblings (and all three of the others have done that at least once TODAY!).

Today, while I was trying to keep Daniel from killing Silas, Silas from tormenting Emma, and Emma from retaliating, Hannah sat quietly on the couch in the living room reading a book.  While I struggled to keep Silas' attention on a reading lesson, fussed with Daniel about his crappy attitude towards math work, all the while dealing with Emma who wanted me to "help her draw", Hannah quietly asked if she could please do another worksheet.


Hannah is always lost in the shuffle of the chaos that is her siblings.  I just need to remind myself that she needs attention and approval as much as anyone else in this house.  She just doesn't always make it as forcefully known.  I guess I need to leave myself a memo to give her some of my time and to let her know how much she is appreciated.