Man, I wish there was a magic mom drink that could give me energy all day long so that I can fully appreciate my loving, silly, adorable, unpredictable, whiny, and frustrating kids. I know we have those funny moments that if I could be anywhere else but in them, I would bust out laughing but somehow when you’re caught between screaming kid #1 and whining kid #2 the humor of it is lost. So my prayer lately has been that God would allow me that out-of-body experience whenever things get really tough so that I can laugh, or at the very least so that I can make sound judgements on how to handle them. (I think this is what my mom would call “payback.”)
For example, Kimi the other day just could not wrap her little mind around the fact that I simply cannot pay attention to her while I am cooking a meal. She was throwing the fit of the year and I was trying my best to ignore the clinging, crying mess that had attached herself to my leg. Now, when Beau throws a fit, he is sent to his room until he can calm down. Well, we have not implemented that rule for Kimi yet because of her age but when I couldn’t handle it anymore I looked at her and asked, “Do you need to go to your room Kimi?” Well, her big, brown eyes pooled up for the millionth time, she began screaming louder, grabbed her blanket, and proceeded to stomp off to her room to finish her fit. I stood there stunned for a minute that she understood what I asked and then started laughing. I guess she’s sealed her own fate now. This strategy has actually been quite effective for Beau as he now usually doesn’t even make it to his room before he turns around and says, “Mommy, I’m calmed down now.” We’ll see how it works for Kimi – somehow I don’t think it’s going to go as well. BUT despite all “those moments” I love my kids so much and could not imagine doing life without them.