Welcome to the house of unreasonable…

“Welcome to the House of Unreasonable, how can I help you?” That’s how I plan on answering my phone for the next 5 years. That’s what most days around here are, terribly unreasonable. Let me clarify. I have an almost 3 year old who is unreasonable. It hit me today that as I try to have a fun day with him or do interesting things he just doesn’t allow that to happen. For instance, I was folding laundry and he wanted to help. ‘Great!’ I think until he starts ‘helping’. I gave him a smallish white towel, and as you may have guessed that wasn’t the one he had in mind. He wanted the huge gray towel. It’s twice his size. He couldn’t even attempt to fold a corner of it. ‘Why not let him try?’ you might be asking yourself. Well here’s how it would go down. “Canon here’s the towel you begged for.” “Momma!!! It’s tooooo biiiiigggg!” Cue whining. “Moooooommmmyyy, I need help!!” Ok, so I try to help. “No I can do it by myself!!”. “Canon you seem to need help.” “Can I do it by myself next time?!” And so that last question will haunt me for the next 3 hours. Really, no lie. Every time he would think of it he’d ask it. Another unreasonable event might be in relation to food. He’s a great eater, just painfully slow. He waits awhile to finish lunch, sometimes not finishing it really. When I go to throw the leftovers out after having asked if he was indeed finished, he screams and pleads with me to have more of whatever it was he was ‘finished’ with. If I concede and give him more, he will stare at it for 20 minutes only to eventually be dragged to bed, extra lunch not touched.

See these are the crazy makers of the day. I am not complaining to be sure, just musing really; thinking out loud about my day and realizing that this is why I haven’t had time to write in the past year. Or why my roots are gray and haggard. Or why I am two years behind on scrapbooks. Realizing all of this I know I have two choices. To go on in my crazy state of mind, constantly frustrated that the things I deem important don’t get done. Or simply enjoy my little unreasonable soul that I am so blessed to live with, kiss him regularly and tell him, “ I know sweetness, you have a very unreasonable mommy.” Today I will choose option B. The best part is, as I kiss him he smiles back and says “ Mommy…. CAN you lay with me NEXT time?” Cue sobs of disbelief that I have left before the appointed time.

A new season of blogging…..

Well, the Christmas season is upon us and I am sure you barely have time to read some entry in a blog. But look, here you are. As I reflect on this year’s events and all the happenings in our busy little life I can’t help but think it’s all racing too fast. As you may expect I get lots of questions about life with four little people. It’s not like we are the family with 17 kids, but still the questions come. My husband and I embarked on our Christmas shopping Friday afternoon, Black Friday, with all the kiddos. Yes, you read right, all the crew. What struck me odd were all the comments. “Oh my!” “You’re brave!” For heaven’s sake! It’s not like they were running amuck. The kids were expressing a desire for everything they saw, in a very ‘can we have it someday’ mindset, but they were great.

 

The truth is I love this time of year the most when my whole family is with me, even in a crowded store. I love seeing their little faces get excited when they see the very tragically over done decorating. I love hearing them sing along to the Christmas songs they hear in the store. Mostly I love just enjoying the hustle and bustle of the season with them by my side. Christmas for me is way more fun when toting everyone along. When they are with me I can share with them the reason we are preparing for Christmas, versus just shopping to buy things. I am always inclined toward the experiences and the reasons behind doing what I do. Initially, I was begging for a babysitter so I could shop without them, as you can imagine they are much too old for me to be sneaky. As it was we almost bought some unintended items that were in the cart as camouflage for another gift. So here we are, December 1^st, starting another holiday rush. I hope along with me, you take your family on all your adventures. You might surprise yourself and never do it any other way!