They're All Mine - For Better And For Worse

I am so glad I can take a step back and realize how lucky and blessed I am.  This summer, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have had all three kiddos by myself.  And it is slightly chaotic, but we survive!  Well, yesterday was the most trying of them all.  Katie wouldn't listen to save her life.  Jack is two and acting every minute of it.  And Ryan - thank goodness for his sweetness.  He started having little laughs when he smiled yesterday.  Sweet, sweet sounds.  But whew.  It was one thing after another...one of those days where I was literally counting down the seconds until bedtime.

 

But when it comes down to it, I have to remind myself that these kids are good kids.  Everyone has a bad day from time to time (note: it would be spectacular if Katie and Jack would try and time theirs on different days so as to not drive their mother insane.)  And while yesterday was insane, there were good, special moments too!

 

When Jack was napping, Katie and I did some art and practiced writing uppercase and lowercase letters (ya know, refreshing before Kindergarten starts) and her name (with the capital K and lowercase other letters).  And then we sat on the front porch for popsicles.  And then she watched a part of a movie while I fed Ryan.

 And this one - I mentioned he was starting to have some little laughs.  And they were precious and sweet and amazing.  Thankfully Ryan is a very sweet, low maintenance baby.  Now if we can just get rid of that middle of the night feeding, Mommy may have an extra bit of patience :) .... Note: This picture was taken almost a month ago.  My, oh, my he has changed!  He looked like a little squish here!

 And "acting his age" couldn't be more appropriate for this one.  He currently has two speeds: running and asleep.  And he is testing boundaries like crazy.  And if his freaking canine teeth don't hurry up and finishing coming through the whole way, we both may explode.  He didn't want to eat yesterday (which I know is fine - he isn't going to waste away...it is just frustrating).  And he was just naughty - eating crayons and not listening and all that jazz.  But there were moments of goodness (thankfully) - when he woke up from his nap, he gave me the biggest hug.  And on a few different occasions, he would walk over and extremely gently give Ryan a kiss on the head.  Sweet, wild child.  This picture is him to a tee - happy as can be and always on the move.

Most of the time, I paint a picture of pure happiness and all that at our house.  I just wanted to say that it isn't necessarily true.  I try to find the positives in each day.  And sometimes it is the whole day.  And then other days, like yesterday, I have to find little moments that made me smile.  And that's what gets me through.  But at the end of each day, I am so thankful and feel so blessed that each of these three calls me Mommy.  Brad and I are blessed enough to be able to be their parents.  Amazing.  Also?  Thank goodness a day is only 24 hours! :)