We all know that parenthood has high highs and low lows! I journaled just about half of one day to show as an example of this.
September 14th, 2013’s Child-Derived High Highs and Low Lows:
We started out the day rough. I was going to take Cora to participate in Whole Foods’ Kid’s Day of Service at the Gardens at Spring Creek in Fort Collins. I knew she would have a blast, but I had to get her out of the house first. I got her dressed, changed her diaper, and she ate breakfast. I was on a time-crunch, and I had to get her hair done and her teeth brushed. She did not care! She fought me at both, but I surely wasn’t going to give up. Our individual persistence created a meeting of the hard-headed minds! Both of our anxiety thresholds were tested, and both of us became cranky in the moment.
HIGH:
Cora and I headed to the Gardens at Spring Creek. She dove right in to the volunteer activities. She happily made a bean sprout necklace, painted toilet paper rolls (I never caught what the purpose of this was), washed empty plastic flower pots, and de-weeded the garden (I think we might have even pulled out some ground cover we shouldn’t have…oops!). She ate the salad lunch provided (ok, she mostly just ate the crackers and bananas) like a champ. No problems! Only smiles and happiness from my little girl.
LOW:
When home, I took Benson from Joel. Benson was tired and cranky and Cora wanted a snack before naptime. No matter what I offered as a snack, she didn’t want it. The longer Cora took to decide what she really wanted to munch on, Benson became more and more upset. I decided to decrease my load and headed upstairs to put Benson to bed. Although I asked her to stay downstairs, Cora insisted on following me up and begging me–screaming– to carry her up. No. No, I won’t carry you up. I have a cranky baby in my arms and you shouldn’t be coming up here, anyway. A breakdown ensues.
HIGH:
After eating a small snack, Cora and a I go upstairs to her room and we read a book. She was giddily engaged in the book; it was really sweet. She laid down in her bed and I left a sweet, quiet girl. As I walked to a quiet downstairs, I had a slight feeling of elation. (I say, “slight”, because as a mom I always have a tingling notion that at any moment a good feeling can turn into one of survival. Even in this silent, peaceful second in time, I held my breath that a whimper would break the stillness or that a door would open and my hopes of an hour plus of productive time would abruptly end.) I reflected on the morning and how fun it was to spend it volunteering at a local garden with my little girl. She had a blast with the other kids there, and I enjoyed seeing her have fun doing activities that would help this local garden–even if she didn’t really understand that that was what she was doing.
I looked at the video monitor and saw my 6-month-old transition from playing with his pacifier to rolling over on his side and starting to snooze. “He’s so adorable,” I thought (as I think probably 50 times a day). A feeling of overwhelming joy came over me. I was blessed to have these two in my life.
LOW:
Not an hour later, Cora came out of her room. She used to sleep for 3+ hours in the middle of the day, but she has been rejecting that. She did not want to go to sleep, but I told her she had to stay in there until I got her in an hour.
HIGH:
She did! She stayed in her room until I got her an hour later! Benson also slept until this time-hack, which was purely coincidence and out of character. Thankfully, I got a lot of work done while they slept.
LOW:
When I opened the door to Cora’s room, I found her sucking on a pacifier (I have no idea where she found it, as she has not been allowed to have a pacifier since she was 12-months-old), and she had diaper cream in chunks all over her face and all over the pacifier she was sucking on. She must be tall enough and smart enough to open the one drawer in her room. Time to move the cream! Oh yes, and diapers were strewn about!
HIGH:
Both kids were happy post-nap.
I could go on and on, but I certainly don’t need to. You KNOW what parenting is like, but sometimes it is hard to realize how much we go through in just one day with our kiddos. It can be emotionally exhausting. So, let this post serve as a remember that when you hit a low low, you can have confidence that it will quickly be followed by a high high. Those “highs” are what we live for as parents. Let those high highs selectively erase your memory of those low lows. 😉
And one of today’s low lows involved pepper on the floor and in the eyes…
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