Life in our house gets pretty hectic. There's a 2 year old, a 3 month old, 2 puppies, and 3 cats. There's a man child that doesn't think cleaning up the dog poop is important. And there's also a mom that can be a bit of a control freak. Those kids have appointments, those pets make annoying messes and don't listen, those parents don't always agree, and that house is an old, annoying "not what I thought I was buying" kind of mess. A nice chunk of my day is "correcting" pets and children...AKA yelling at pets and children. My poor neighbors hear a lot of, "NO (insert one of five names here)!!" Another big part of my day is cleaning up never ending messes that really don't need to happen. Why did the dogs pull the table cloth off? Why is Tank eating out of the litter box and spitting it out on the floor? Why is there pee all over the toilet and surrounding area? Who doesn't shut the shower curtain? Did they think the bathroom needed a shower too? The other day, I even left the house in just my socks.
Every parent goes through this. That's what we sign up for when we have kids and get pets. Every couple has their arguments. I still often find myself praying for an easier day. Pleeeaaaase can the kids take a nap at the same time so I can put some wash away? Can Lillian leave the sleeping baby alone for more than 5 minutes so we can have some mom and Lilly time? Can she NOT act like a mean 13 year old girl when I try to help her with things? Why is everyone throwing a fit at the same time? No reason for them to be screaming like this....And then sometimes I join in and yell too.
I am lucky to have always been able to keep track of the so many good and amazing things that happen. Whether it be by posting about it, taking a picture, or recording a video. With all of our social networking and phones that I still think are capable of too many things, it's so easy to capture what is happening in our lives and share it with people. This helps on those days that you just can't get anything accomplished.
Andrew and I essentially met on Facebook. That's cheesy and whatever. But since most of our communication was through messages on Facebook, I still have all of them. I have all the first little moments that brought us here. So when I feel like I just can't stand him anymore, it's nice to go back and see what made us love each other in the first place. We are those same people, just in a different situation. It's easy to forget what pulled us together, but because I still have it all in my inbox, I get to relive it.
We are both constantly looking back on pictures and videos of both of our girls. While it makes us realize how fast they grow up, we are always able to see them reaching their milestones. I don't need to remember why I love my kids. But it is nice to go back and smile at all of those videos and pictures after a day of nobody getting along.
It's also awesome to see how far Lillian has come. I know we will love this with Maddy too, but we have watched Lillian try so hard for quite a few things and she has always proved she can do anything. Right now we are struggling with basic signing and it gets frustrating because I know she can do it. Then I get to watch old videos of her bear walking when we wanted her to stand and walk properly. Back then it felt like it took forever. One day, she just started running into her dad's arms. We spent an entire morning taking videos of her running to each of us to tackle and hug us. She did it on her own terms the way she wanted to. While I know she will reach all of her goals, seeing how she did it in the past makes it easier to keep trying today.
Today is one of those days. I'm typing this over the course of two hours with one hand while I sing and sign with Lilly, feed and burp Maddy, get dogs off the sofa, and shoo cats from the counter. I had half a cup of coffee and a cookie for breakfast, which is actually good compared to most mornings. I forgot to put on underwear this morning. And we are still waiting to have our new furnace installed towards the end of October in PA. Stressed much? But now I have this post as a reminder to look back. We all need to remember why we do what we do.
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