Guys, I love the rain. I love fall, winter, windy days, and chilly, stormy skies. I love the great indoors just as much the great outdoors, sometimes even more.
What I do not like is who my kids turn into when we are largely stuck inside. We need to hit a major reset button because the bickering, wrestling, and general encroachment on each other’s spaces is really kicking my butt. Having a large personal bubble myself, I get the heebie jeebies just watching someone else’s bubble get breached. Combined with that is the fact that I mostly just want to nest in peace before baby comes and have created to-do lists way too unreasonable for a day, every day. And then there’s the reality that sitting down on the floor to play is just so. far. down. and comes with the no-longer-small matter of getting back up.
But despite the craziness, today was a day with bright moments that could not be completely dimmed. Moments like the lady who offered to let me go in front of her at the grocery store despite my loaded cart, expressing genuine, judgement-free sympathy after witnessing me struggling to subdue and carry my screaming two-year-old on my massive belly with one arm while pushing the cart with my other hand in order to catch up to my enthusiastic four-year-old who had spotted something, about ready to use my teeth to grab the necessary products from the shelves along the way.
And the fact that said 4-year-old, who had me so concerned about his speech progression that I took him for an assessment mere weeks ago, has suddenly not only mastered almost all his sounds, but today wanted to know how to spell everything from “bathing suit” to “I love you” so he could practice writing his letters and explain the attire and mood of the sea horses he had drawn. (He may still write completely mirror-imaged, upside down and/or right-to-left, but his motor control in doing so is excellent :)).
It’s really not their fault that they’re little and love attention and don’t understand that spreading on the pizza sauce with their fingers and sampling all the toppings is not really helping with dinner. And eventually they all go to bed, and the house is so quiet, and I regain perspective and realise they all ended the day fed, clean, read to, cuddled, and happy, and their sweet little minds have forgotten most of the rest and so tomorrow really is a fresh start and will, by the grace of God, be better.
I know that feeling. Maybe not at this moment in my life but I’ve been there and I just might be there again some day :-) When is your baby due? One day at a time, in God’s hands.
I’m due January 7…still a few weeks to go, but the time is flying by!
Nice piece and excellent perspective :) Love to you all!
This is such a fabulous post, Anna! Life with littles is hard, sometimes. Joyful, too, but the hard can be just so overwhelming. And playing on the floor when you’re pregnant? I remember falling asleep while playing cars on the floor with my middle child, about 8 months pregnant with my third and waking up to hear, “You’re supposed to move your car, Mommy!”
Haha, yes! I have definitely done that – if we’re playing animals, I am always one that “hibernates” so I can take a nap ;)