"You will never sleep again"

You know, one of the many pieces of parenting "advice" or warnings I either did not believe or chose to ignore, was that I should sleep now (while pregnant...seriously what woman sleeps well while she is pregnant), because I would never sleep again. And, I laughed, every time. Mostly because I tend to deal with insomnia more often than not, so I am kind of used to not sleeping, and because I figured after a few months of newborn all-nighters, my sleep schedule would be back to normal. The beauty of it is that we were blessed with a good sleeper for the most part. I may have even laughed again, after Lane started sleeping through the night, at all the doomsday warnings of never sleeping again. Of course having only one child does make sleep more likely than having multiple children on different sleep schedules does (which means my sister, who has 3 children one of which is still an infant, really NEVER gets a full night's sleep). But then your child gets sick and after a couple nights of sleeping on the air mattress in his room, listening to him having difficulty breathing, whimpering and calling for mommy each hour, you are no longer laughing at the naysayers, but instead feeling the need to call every pregnant woman you know to warn her that she needs to sleep while she can, because she will NEVER sleep again!

***This post is mostly said in jest, since I know I will in fact sleep again (never a whole night though -see the insomnia reference, but mostly because my bladder seems to find joy in being most active between 10 PM and 4:45 am).

***I do recognize that some mamas out there really cannot remember the last good night sleep they had, and that my little whinefest will seem trivial and a little like bragging all at once. Please know I am mostly trying to make light of a situation where  I, a natural worrier, am very worried about how sick my little guy is :( I also highly respect and even envy you for those sleepless nights.

Time and a child have definitely changed me

When I was a teenager and young adult, I was unbelievably shy, as in I would blush when talking to my family at the dinner table kind of shy. I still tend to be a wallflower and thought I was easily embarrassed until today. After today I can say without a doubt that it is much harder to embarrass me, well I was embarrassed, but am not so easily deterred or affected by my embarrassment.

It started with realizing Lane's pants were on backwards while we were at a car lot. Not an unusual occurrence actually, but bears mentioning for the remainder of the story. I told him I would change them around when we got to Old Navy, my favorite clothing store. As we are walking into Old Navy, it somehow does not register that he is carrying a large cup of milk from the coffee stand. We walk through the doors and within 30  seconds he drops the entire cup all over the floor. My brain processes this in slow motion as the white fluid proceeds to splatter across the shiny concrete floor, and I stand there with my mouth gaping open. Jason promptly takes Lane out of the store, while I help the poor guy working there clean up the mess with 100 small paper towels, presumably from the bathroom, making excuses and joking that this would have been far less embarrassing at Walmart. The part that shocked me most was that I proceeded to shop for 30 minutes, visited with a friend, and tried clothes on, instead of leaving immediately. The old me would have left and never, ever gone back. The "new" me shopped and fully intends to go back in April to use my $10 off coupon.

But the story gets better. When I leave I go to meet Jason and Lane at another store,  where I finally realize Lane is still wearing his pants backwards. So we go to the bathroom to change him and we both proceed to walk in on a woman doing her business in the bathroom stall. Granted it was more her fault for not locking the door, but it was just the icing on the cake from everything else. Again though, I was amazed at my fortitude as I made my apologies, proceeded to change Lane's pants around and go through an unusually quiet checkout line with a very rambunctious, loud child. After that though, we decided it was not worth taking another chance out in public and went home.

Thankfully there are no pics to accommodate this post.

TGIF

I am so glad it is Friday, but thought it would be fun to recap some moments that brought me laughs or made me happy this week:

 These cakes are a little slice of heaven for a woman who craves cinnamon rolls and is on a diet!

This little guy and I only walked about 3/4 of a mile in an hour, but it was one of the best hours of the whole week!

Finding this when I opened my computer to finish paperwork very early Tuesday morning! My husband still makes my heart skip a beat!

Coffee rarely needs any explanation as to why it makes me happy, but a friend bought this one for me today, which made my day much brighter.

Anyone one up for a little "Tinkle, Tinkle Little Star"?!?!?!?

And then there are the moments that did not make it in a picture, but are worth remembering, such as Lane and I taking a break from the hectic morning routine to cuddle this morning right before walking out the door, seeing a very light dusting of snow this morning and knowing it is hopefully the last snow before spring, talking to my sister on the phone about our kids antics and dreaming wild and crazy dreams with my husband.

Now come on weekend!!!

I Think I Will Keep My Day (And Night) Job

I am not a good cook, nor am I a natural born housekeeper. I am not extremely organized. I am lazy to a fault. I am none of the things that I believe make a good wife and mother. I am rarely patient. I do not handle sickness and/or weakness well. I am easily frustrated. I fly off the handle over little things and make flippant, cold comments without batting an eyelash, while my husband truly takes it from me without retaliating. I often feel like I am failing at all the important aspects of motherhood and being a wife.

But, it is also my favorite part of my life. I LOVE being Jason's wife. I LOVE being Lane's mom. I love my life, as it is, with all of it's simple, beautiful, albeit at times frustrating moments. I feel so blessed that God gave me these two amazing people to love and care for. I am finding joy in cleaning my house, a desire to learn to cook for my guys, a joy in managing our finances and even joy in getting off my butt to cater to the youngest among us many, many needs and whims. Because this is my real "job" in life. The part-time jobs I do to help us financially, are insignificant in comparison and do not get my first priority like jobs used to. Sure there are going to be many things I will do in my life that may be deemed important, tasks that may even make me seem more important to others, but short of maintaining a true relationship with God, I do believe wholeheartedly that loving, serving and caring for them is my most important "job", as well as my greatest gift.

So although I am not what I deem good at the job, and although I will always be striving to do it better, I am so glad that I get to do this everyday (and night). So even though I may not be perfect at this job, I will gladly keep my day (and night) job!