The wonderful thing about being a Realtor mom is the flexibility I have regarding controlling my schedule. The fact of the matter is, my kids rule the roost, so my life revolves around their school schedules and social agendas.

I've quite happily discovered my six year old has an ear for music and eye for art. He also has a wonderful sense and zest for transforming his concept of life into color and can spend hours pouring over picture books of Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh and Picasso while taking a scissor to my copies of "This Old House" to tape, glue and otherwise create his own arts and crafts projects. On occasion, we paint side by side, and he produces a wonderful abstract (e.g. the photograph above in pre-kindergarten) which if we fail to frame immediately he will eventually take a magic marker to and write his favorite movie titles across (currently "The Lion King"). He usually hogs the paint and has been known to cross over to dab a few strokes on what ever work of art I happen to be creating to "correct" my sense of color. Much of my SoHo Gallery inventory was destroyed by this budding artist, which might be a good thing since it has forced me to pick up the brush again (and again and again and again). Doing real estate takes up the bulk of my "free" time, so when the little fellas get together to paint with mommy it is a real treat to share the things I love to do with my kids. My six year old gets quite serious with a paint brush, but the two year old usually just wants to line up the tubes and stack jars.

I've also discovered that children pay a lot more attention to what we do than we realize. I've heard it said before, but nothing hit home like it recently did when I started taking the boys out on "a field trip." It appears that's what Ms. Ali calls it when his kindergarten class goes off on a trip, so when I do my house thing, my son immediately puts on his shoes and socks and declares that we are going on a house field trip. Turns out my six year old loves real estate. I usually ask permission well in advanced of my clients in order to schedule some mommy time to work with him in the field to "teach him the business." He thinks he's Bob the Builder Realtor Man of Action when we do an open house. My son takes inventory of the features. No closet is not observed, no knob goes unturned, no faucet is left unchecked for running hot and cold water, no toilet remains un-flushed, no light switch un-flicked. This kid is serious about checking out his houses and will immediately announce uh-oh if something is not quite right. He hands out business cards and fact sheets, will walk people through the home and look back to check and see if I and they are following him.

The moment a guest leaves a room, he immediately closes what ever they have opened and truns off the lights, shutting the doors behind them. In his mind, opening a door to present the room for the first time is a flourish he must repeat 10, 20 30 times a day. He knows his day is done when we pack up the open house signs. Before we drive away he always asks when will come again on our next house field trip... Doing an open house with Noah is the best part of my  day.

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