7 Blogs in 7 Days...Day 4

I would have titled this post Perception vs. Reality if I wasn't using the title above. I have fears that this blog (in its entirety, not this post) doesn't quite do my life, the girls lives, our lives together total justice. I use the blog to keep friends updated and share pictures that I obsessively take, but most months come and go, sharing the highlights and neglecting to tell the full story.

I think of it like a sports highlight reel, without showing the losers in the locker room after the game. The real truth is that this is hard work. Yes, the newborn stage was hard and is all a bit blurry in my mind, but this new age has presented new challenges. They are absorbing EVERYTHING. I try and watch every word I say, I try to discipline with patience, I try to teach sharing instead of shoving, I try and teach numbers and colors and the letters, I try to explore new places, I try to teach manners, I try to teach them to eat with silverware, I try to teach them to tell me when they are wet or poopy, I try not to laugh when one falls and the other one laughs, I try to run/play/explore/get dirty with them. I am trying to raise GOOD people, contributing members of society, that's what all parents want, right?

It's the toughest job ever, don't ever doubt that.

Some days I want to call in sick. Some days I want to give myself a time-out. Some days, they show me signs that I'm not doing such a great job....Lilly still SCREAMS every night when she goes to bed (and believe me we've tried everything short of sticking a muzzle on her) and Addy throws total tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Some afternoons look more like this than that highlight reel.....

and sometimes we become snotty, booger covered messes like this....


I'll spare you the videos I have labeled as "meltdown" just in case my girls want to run for political office or something one day. But honestly, sometimes the end of the day comes and I'm left speechless, exhausted from the day and "spent" in every sense of the word. But then the funniest thing happens, the next morning I get the first hug, the first kiss, the first "I love you mama" and there is no where else I'd rather be.

(This post seems trivial to be posting on 9/11, knowing our world has much bigger issues than my toddler tantrums, I pray my daughters will never have a day in their lives like we, as a country, had 8 years ago. I support our troops, not the war, and specifically EVERY military family, mother, father, grandparent that is acting as a sole caregiver while a family member is deployed....may YOUR day be tantrum free and your family reunited soon.)