One of Those Days

Thursday was the kind of day that I'm sure every mother has.  It was one of those days where the dishwasher was clean at 8am and I didn't unpack it until 5pm.  Jack wouldn't let me put him down.  Lilly wanted someone to play with at all times.  Jack napped for a total of about an hour the entire day.  Lilly didn't nap.  Laundry piled up.  There were toys everywhere.  The only time I had to myself all day was the 15 minute shower I took in the morning before Jim left for work.  It was a loooooong day that followed a long night.  Jack decided to wake up every 3-4 hours all night long--something he hadn't done since his newborn days, so I started the day off exhausted.  I realized early on the kind of day it was going to be and made plans accordingly.  When Jack napped for half an hour instead of two hours in the morning, I picked him up and we all went off to the library.  When Lilly and subsequently Jack refused to nap in the afternoon, I gave up trying to get them to sleep and headed off to one of our favorite grocery stores, Fairway, for some groceries and a snack.  Of course, as soon as we got to Fairway, Jack fell asleep in his car seat, sucking his thumb and prompting everyone to stop and remark what a sweet little boy he was.  While I agreed with them, those people didn't know the kind of day I was having.  It was one of those days where everything was out of whack.  Nothing went the way it was supposed to.  When Jim came home from work, Jack was in his swing crying and all I could do was burst into tears.  Jim gave me a much needed hug and we put the little ones to bed.  The house was finally quiet.  We had a glass of wine and chatted about how on this day, 11 years ago, we started dating.  What a difference 11 years makes!  We ended the day laughing and reminiscing.  It was my favorite part of Thursday.

Thankfully, most times that I have a day like that, it's followed by one like yesterday.  Everyone slept until 8am.  We went off to tumble time where Lilly ran around and played with her friends Margot and Grace while Jack slept in his car seat in a corner of the gym.  We came home, had lunch, and both little ones took great naps.  Lilly made Jack laugh, which makes her laugh even harder.  I had time to read; time to knit; time to play around on Pinterest (I'm addicted, but more on that later); time to myself.  The weather was nice enough that we were able to go for a walk.  We all had an early dinner, Lilly and Jack went to bed and Jim and I enjoyed our quiet evening.

Being a mum is not easy.  No one said it would be.  But I have to say that days like Thursday make me appreciate all the other days so much more.  I know every day can't be perfect.  I have ups and downs just like every other mum out there.  And on a day like Thursday, when it seems like everything is going wrong, I reminded myself that I have many more ups than downs.

Our biggest up at the moment being that we *may* be on the road to full nights of sleep (I'm talking, 11 hours last night!) with "little" Jack.  I think I'm going to have to stop calling him little though as he measured rather big at his 3 month doctor's appointment.  I don't think you can call 15lbs and 26 inches long at 3 months, little.  I don't want to jinx the sleep, so more about that in a few days.