Thursday, October 18, 2012

Perspective

Once again I find myself looking at the several posts I've started, and knowing in my heart that's not what I'm supposed to write.  Not now.

Every once in a while you get slapped in the face by perspective.

This has been a humorously frustrating week for me.  Nothing bad, nothing awful, but full of funny mommy anecdotes that I will call my friend about and we'll laugh together, or I'll post on my board, because they get it.  For instance, I am sitting on my comforter-less bed right now.  Because my two year old pulled a puppy stunt today.  I was vacuuming upstairs and she had been playing downstairs with Adam, but wandered up because she wanted to use the princess potty, not the green potty (she's very particular).  She did, no problem.  Instead of going downstairs, she became fascinated with the vacuum.  She "helped" for a minute or so, then got bored and climbed up on our bed, calling for me to play with her.  I told her I would as soon as I finished.  Within 30 seconds she ran down the hall calling "Mommy, I peed on your bed!".  Just like in the Clorox (or whatever) commercial where the kid is all excited he made poop and the mom asks after some investigation "WHERE?"

But yes, she sure did pee on our bed.  And the laundry sitting on it waiting to be folded.  And if you remember, our comforter is not exactly easy to clean.  So I found myself at the kitchen sink with the Palmolive, hand washing pee out of our only comforter.

Reagan is about a sneeze away from crawling, which is a fun milestone.  Madison is VERY excited about it...so much so that she attempts to drag Reagan around when Reagan belly flops down after rocking back and forth.  Fortunately Reagan thinks this is hysterical for the most part.

Madison is getting sassy, but in a cute two year old way.  When she doesn't like what I'm telling her (on controversial topics such as when it will be time to eat a meal, get dressed, take a nap, pick up a toy, or get in the car) she says "shhh...quiet voice mama.  Go help Reagan now.  She needs help".  She's also become quite the little mimic.  I told her it was time to eat dinner and she looked up and said "I'm on it mama.  But be patient.  Two seconds".  It's hard not to crack a smile when she's so darn cute, but battling over this stuff can get exhausting.

Both girls are also messing with their sleep schedule, and that means that I have a child bursting into tears telling me she is NOT tired, or a baby who decided the last 5 minutes of a car ride was plenty of nap to sustain the rest of the day.  Tired kids are TIRING.

We also had a small saga with our hot water heater.  It's no secret Adam travels a lot.  The first night he was gone this week our hot water heater suddenly (to me, anyway) stopped producing hot water right when the girls were about to take their baths.  After troubleshooting on Facebook, I gave in and called the oil company.  Through the magic of service contracts, the problem was fixed by 9:00 pm, but dealing with that situation ate up my entire evening.

Anyway, these are the kinds of things I'll call my friends to relay, in the way that all moms tell those kinds of stories about their kids.  Not a horrible week, not by far, but the kind where you vent and whine and have a nice glass of pinot grigio when the girls are finally tucked into bed (hopefully with their pants still on...that is now a variable - no longer a given).

But today I was really thinking about how small those things really are.  Yesterday I attended a wake for the sister of a friend who died far too young and far too abruptly.  In one instant, one moment, one breath, she was gone.  Her family was left shocked, stunned and questioning how this could have happened.  Over 1000 people waited for hours outside a small town funeral home to pay their respects and offer words to her shocked and grieving parents and sisters.

In one instant your life can change.  Forever.  No one is invincible, even when you HAVEN'T done anything wrong.  Ultimately, it doesn't matter and it does us good to remember that when the little details get frustrating.

I can't promise I won't ever mock-whine about having my bed peed on by a 2 year old, or by seven month old determined to steal every one of her sister's goldfish, even though she doesn't have a single tooth to help get them down.

But sometimes it takes a sobering reminder that life is precious to help you overlook those baby and toddler moments and make sure to savor every one of them. 



Take pictures, write down memories, have the moments of annoyance but laugh about them over that glass of pinot.  Because they won't be little for long, and as I was reminded of this week, there are no guarantees.

This isn't the post I intended to write tonight.  I intended to write about mom's night out and our trip to the farm and the general funny anecdotes in our house.  But when perspective slaps you, you listen.  Or you try to.

I feel silly mentioning this after such a heavy post, but I'm still in the running for a Circle of Moms Top 25 blogger honor.  The contest ends next week.  You can vote once a day if you are so inclined!
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