Her side of it:
Last Thursday had been one of "those" days. One of those days where, while the girls were in their room being 'grounded' and our son was doing his own thing, I sat on the couch and cried. Cried over the failures I felt had happened today. The failure I felt towards my children in regards to their actions and attitudes today. The failure I felt as a mom and a wife. Here is an over view of our day:
My day started at 4:45 am. Being 25 weeks pregnant with baby bear #4 I have been feeling every ache and pain, it seems, 100 times more. It seems my back is in a constant state of reminding me there is a quickly growing mass throwing me off balance. My body seems to cramp up more and more frequently.
The girls were up before 6:30 am and while that isn't always unusual you could most definitely tell they were still tired. After our oldest, who is barely 3 1/2 years old, declared her presence to her daddy, who was in the bathroom getting ready for work, I jumped off the couch and escorted her back to her room, where her 2 year old sister was just walking through the threshold of their door. I convinced them to lay in bed for a while longer. They were officially up and at 'em when daddy went to say good bye to them and carried them to the couch to snuggle under a blanket and play on the mini 'tablet' (my old android phone) together.
Dear 3 1/2 year old daughter, who is fully potty trained, acted like she wasn't. She had 3 accidents today. 3 accidents that were easy to quickly clean (we are REALLY loving our hardwood and linoleum floors). 3 accidents that could have been controlled but she didn't put forth the effort to do so.
Let us move on to nap time. Our girls share a room. It has its good days and bad days. Today was a bad day. After about 20 minutes of constantly going in to their room and taking away a toy each time and raising my voice, quite a bit, I finally left their door wide open and settled in a kitchen chair right in the middle of their threshold. I sat there for close to half an hour. I sat there staring down our 2 year old until she caved in and curled up falling quickly asleep. I sat there staring down our 3 1/2 year old until she started caving in. I left their room with her still awake but she was quickly asleep after that. I had barely finished swallowing the last of my lunch when I hear our 2 year old SCREAMING in their room. I mean, this was barely 45 minutes after she had fallen asleep, which means 3 1/2 year old was barely asleep. I go to open their door and knock her in the head because, apparently, she was standing right there. All 3 kids woke up. (Our 1 year old son has his own room but is right next door.) Our son quickly fell back asleep but the girls were up.
Dinner time. Oh that lovely time. The time where we sit down as a family, give thanks to our Lord for our many blessings and just be together. But tonight. Tonight it was the time to sit there and complain about the food mommy made and just flat out refuse to eat it. Tonight was the time for our girls to sit at the table for over an hour, by themselves, until they ate their dinner.
After they choked down their dinner and daddy was gone to his play rehearsal (very proud wife right here, by the way), the girls were sent straight to their room until I declared it was bed time. Bed time came and they actually cleaned their room, with no help from me. I was astonished and relieved. I honestly did not know how that one would play out but they were amazing listeners and even more amazing little workers. I was able to tuck our son in his crib while they put their books and toys away. They smiled and worked together. It warmed my heart quite a lot.
I did my rounds of tucking in. Our 2 year old was first. I sat on her bed, asked her if she was ready to say her bed time prayers, and in her cute little 2 year old voice she happily declared, "Yeah!" She held my hand, closed her eyes, and listened to my prayer of thankfulness for the day and the fun we did manage to have and that tomorrow will be a bit smoother. After 2 rounds of hugs and kisses from her I ventured over to sister who was all ready saying she wanted to say her own prayer. With a big smile on my face I said, "OK." I sat down on her pink princess bed, watched her fold her hands and close her eyes and listened to her sweet, innocent voice say her thanks for her food, her thanks for the day, and her thanks for her helping clean her room and toys for mommy. The tears were hard to control with that one.
While this day was, well, quite the handful of negative actions and thoughts it was also filled with laughter, our 3 1/2 year old declaring she is going to marry her daddy, snuggles on the couch, and reading books. Our son is constantly giving away his smiles and giggles. Our 2 year old is constantly showing us her talent of break dancing, and our 3 1/2 year old is constantly showing us her humor and love of ballet and drawing.
And while days like this day are, believe it or not, very few, we are blessed. Our children are a blessing. Our children are best friends with each other. Our children are on loan to us from God and it is the greatest gift received.
