Parenting is hard. Raising little people is ex-haust-ing. (Let me just add in here that I'm ranting a little, ok. I have amazing kids and we are incredibly blessed to have a community that is supportive and family that loves our kids and gives us a regular break to keep our sanity. I definitely see that I have it much easier than a lot of people and I am very thankful for that.) Let me continue...
Ex-haust-ing. I'm physically exhausted from being up at night with Owen. I'm emotionally exhausted from the intense stage of having a 3 year old- giving up the pacifier, potty training, preschool, wanting to do things for himself, testing boundaries, adjusting to a new little brother, etc. Bed time is hard with both of them. We start at 7:30pm and sometimes it's 9:30pm before the house is quiet and we can relax, and often just go to bed at that point.
I find myself feeling the tension of wanting to enjoy this stage with our two boys and longing for the next stage when they are sleeping better and potty training is complete and I can actually get 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep!
Longing...that's what I'm feeling quite a bit these days, longing for sleep.
But in the midst of being so, so tired...I get these amazing snuggles every day. I have two boys who are Mama's Boys! I feel their love for me so deeply and completely. That's the thing about babies and kids, they love deeply. They feel so completely, and they express those feelings unashamedly. I appreciate that about them, especially coming from my boys. We are trying hard to create an environment for them where expressing their feelings is encouraged. We want them to know they are allowed to feel whatever they want, there are boundaries with how they can express those feelings, but we want to know how they feel and think and perceive what is going on in their lives.
And it's so amazing to see what their little sponge minds are soaking up. And nerve racking to know everything we do is being copied and memorized. Yikes! And so I strive with little sleep to be patient with a rowdy 3 year old and my never-stopping 7 month old. They keep me going, for sure.
But for now...I sleep.
