missed moments

I was sitting upstairs in my room recently, begging Matt to go get me my phone downstairs so I could ask Siri to look something up for me. When he didn't jump up to go get it for me, I said fine, I would just look it up the "old school" way then, you know, on my iPad.

Seriously? How spoiled have we gotten with technology. And more importantly, how is something that is supposed to make our lives easier in fact taking over our lives. A blessing and a curse I tell you.

And is it just me or is it a constant struggle to limit our kids from all the technology. And I am talking about a 2 year old and 4 year old....not teenagers. The other day I told Chase he was done playing computer games, so he came over to me, grabbed the iPad and said, "fine I'll just play angry birds then." And I have to hide my iPhone from Mia or she would monopolize it 24/7.

We spend so much energy limiting our kids...but do we limit ourselves? How many times have the kids been trying to get my attention and I'm fiddling on the phone? How often do I try to sneak a quick peek at Facebook, or take my turn on Words With Friends? Do you also find yourself talking to your spouse and mustering all your energy to not check the notification that just popped up on your phone? Matt and I were making fun of a couple we saw the other day eating lunch and both on their phone. The next day we found ourselves doing the same thing.

Last week I was giving Lyla her last feeding of the day in the quiet of her room...with phone in hand...and I remembered this post I did when Mia was a baby. And then I ached a little inside. Because this dang piece of technology that was supposed to simplify my life was taking away precious moments from me. Moments like this, sitting in a quiet, dark room, snuggling my sweet little baby. Robbing me of some quiet time out from the day to reflect, ponder and sort out my life. And surely I was missing moments with my kids everyday.  For what? To check out what other people are doing?

I am resolving to be better. I started by leaving that dang thing behind when I put Lyla to bed. And I got back to focusing on my baby girl and getting some of my best thinking done again. And I am trying to stay more focused during the day on what WE are doing. I did get a bit side tracked the other day with something on my phone while I was holding Lyla, but caught that baby girl giving me the biggest smile you could imagine. You better believe I put that phone down quick as I could...cause no amount of technology can compete with that.