Remember when I said to just roll up your sleeves and get to work? There was something in there about hitting some rocks along the way, but not all of them?
I wrote that in the morning and by that afternoon I had hit more rocks than I care to count. And by rocks I do mean children being disrespectful, throwing fits and causing all sorts of trouble. Especially the oldest one. My word, where did that girl get her attitude from? She looks just like her dad so I am pretty sure it all comes from him. We got all the kids in bed a little early just to save ourselves. They all went to bed well and we patted ourselves on the back. Clearly the kids were all just tired and tomorrow would be a fresh start. We were so naive. So innocent in our thinking, because they had all decided that the next shift of "Break Mom" would be the littlest ones responsibility. At 5:30 am he started in on us. Screaming, crying and cussing us out in the way only 17 month olds know how to do. Was he hungry? Nope. Did he want to snuggle? Was he too hot? Too cold? Nope. Nada. Zilch. He just wanted to be miserable and make the rest of us miserable too. Did I mention that this child also looks just like his father? He finally settled down in his bed just as the middle child ran as fast as she could past his bedroom because she was 'about to pee my pants'. I heard the trickle. There was no urgency for that. She was just doing her part to bring mama down.
Kids. Not only can they smell weakness, but the can also smell when you are feeling a little bit accomplished. And they take their job of bringing you back to reality very seriously.
How can parenting be the hardest thing in the world to do and a half second later be the absolute best thing in the world. I would not trade this for anything in the world most days, but sometimes I would totally trade it just for an uninterrupted date with a cup of hot coffee. How is that even possible? To be so unexplainably good and bad at the exact same time. So, here I sit in my bathrobe next to a cup of very cold coffee wondering how in the world any mother has survived to be a grandmother. But in a few minutes it will be time to go do the morning animal chores. I am sure the fresh air will clear my head and I will come back in a new mama. And they will most likely been hard at work doing exactly what they aren't suppose to. But I have my cow, so at least there is that.
