Every day is a new adventure....

It's not easy being a mother. Not at all. And I find myself saying that a lot in my head. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. I really don't know how I will ever survive summer this year. In August of last year, when Brennan started school, I was so very upset. My baby was growing up and there was nothing I could do about it. However, the exact week that Brennan started school, Ethan became very mobile. As in walking. Ethan has been a whirlwind of action since then.

So, Spring Break was this week. Translation: Two kids at home with me ALL day. I am worn out. Just today has been an adventure.

#1. Both boys are awake before the sun. As a matter of fact, Ethan awoke at 5:30 to cry. Then 30 seconds later dozed off. Within 5 minutes, he would start crying again. This continued until he was fully awake at 7:00. He does this almost every night. He has not been a good sleeper at night since the day he was born.

#2. While trying to color my hair before my shower this morning, (I know! Don't ask me why I thought it would be an easy task)Ethan decided to get into my make-up drawer. I had just mixed the hair color and was putting it in my hair, when Ethan got his hands on one of my Amy Head powder brushes. This is probably a $30 brush (that I bought when I actually had the time AND energy to apply make-up just to go to places like the grocery store and I cared enough to spend a fortune on my looks---otherwise known as the time in my life BEFORE kids). So, after he got said brush, he then squatted down and started sweeping the bathroom floor with it. (Keep in mind, I had hair color all over my hands at this moment.) After I told him "NO, NO", he then stood up, turned around, and turned on the faucet to our whirlpool tub. Next he took the same cosmetic brush and "washed" it under the running water. Well, I'm sure it could have used a good cleaning, ESPECIALLY after it was used to sweep up the bathroom floor. Now it's just one expensive, pitiful looking brush.

#3. While trying to take a shower, thinking I could do it in 10 minutes or less, I left Brennan in the time-out corner, where he was for the second time this morning, and then I put Ethan in his walker. Yes, I know. Ethan is way too big for a walker, but the only way for me to shower and get dressed in the morning, is if he is contained in the walker. So anyway, Brennan's in timeout and Ethan is in walker. Thirty seconds after I was in the shower trying to wash the hair color out, I hear Ethan cry. It wasn't a frantic cry like he had been hurt, but it was his mad cry. (As a parent you learn to know the difference.) When I get out and look in my room he had somehow turned his whole body around in the walker, without managing to climb out or escape, and then he got stuck and couldn't move the walker forward to turn the television back on-- the same television I had left on for him, but he decided to turned it off. (I know, but until you've been desperate to bathe and/or use the bathroom in peace, don't judge me.)

#4. We took a trip to the grocery store this morning for the second time this week. Enough said.

#5. We returned from the grocery store and landed in "Meltdown City". Brennan and Ethan got into war over a box of Brennan's crayons that I had already told him to put up. Ethan is not afraid to use force to get something he wants, and Brennan is too much of a softy to really fight back. So they both had hold of the crayon box and they are both screaming and crying bloody murder, yet Ethan won't let go, and Brennan is too nice to snatch it out of his hands. This is all while I'm wrist deep in dishwater, washing dishes. They were both hysterical and it became way too ridiculous.

#6. I told Brennan to play outside while Ethan took a nap this afternoon, instead of sitting in front of the television all afternoon. My child is deathly afraid of anything that flies. And he has a good reason to. He's been stung on numerous occasions, by numerous flying bugs. He was even stung last year at his birthday party after finding a wasps nest. Out of all the kids at his party, he was the only one that got stung. And he still remembers it. Anyway, now that spring is here and things are blooming, the bees are in full swing. So now, he refuses to leave the patio. And then he comes to the window and knocks every time he sees a flying insect to report it to me and to tell me he needs to come in. *sigh*

Every day is a new adventure. And with each new adventure comes a new test for patience. It's true. Being a parent is full of good times and fun times, but also trying times. Survival skills weren't taught at the hospital before birth like childbirth classes and sibling classes. Even if it was a class, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have listened or taken notes. Or, just like my childbirth class, I would have dropped out after the first night. I will survive, and I will cherish each moment. But by now, I ought to have the patience of a saint!