Adventures of 1, 2, 3

Today was difficult. It was blazing hot today, a real first look at summer, which limited the places we could go today. What to do with a toddler on a day that's really too hot to handle? The map of our day, in order: Denny's for breakfast (WIN), church to visit VBS (WIN), home in an attempt to catch nap time (fail), Target (WIN), home to drop off groceries, an outdoor plaza - which included fountains, ducks, plenty of shade, and a Starbucks (WIN!!), home to play (fail), the eye doctor to drop off Grandma, and back home for dinner, bath, bottle, and bed (a mixed bag).

Friends, trust me when I say that I'm tired. And you'd think Little Monkey would be too. But the truth about little monkeys is that they are never really predictable and my Little Monkey took too many sleeptime attempts today with very little results.

So here is the 1, 2, 3 of the day as quickly and concisely and with as much heart as I can currently muster.

1. The fails. Not to be Negative Nancy but in reflecting on the day, here's what went horribly wrong. I mistook Little Monkey's whininess around 10am to be nap time whines, thinking that we had already been out for a while that he might have gotten tired early when instead, he was probably just hungry for a morning snack. My bad. Lesson learned - offer snack first before assuming sleep for this one. I also got absolutely nothing done today. I meant to do laundry and clean my bedroom and do dishes and actually take a short nap during nap time. Unfortunately, because Little Monkey opted to only sleep for about 30 minutes, I didn't get to completing the above activities. Oh, and in the second attempt at his nap, I dropped a glass in the sink and pieces of glass were shattered into my garbage disposal. Total fail. Bed time was also a total fail. It took dear husband and I about 5 tries and three hours to get the overtired toddler to sleep tonight! Ugh.


2. The WINS. Getting to enjoy Little Monkey and Mommy Time over breakfast was wonderful! Seeing my little one walk into the church nursery all by himself and comfort another crying toddler with a toy was such a huge WIN and spoke so clearly of the kind and soft heart of my son! In addition, instead of cleaning the disaster that is the kitchen, I chose to discipline my child today as consistently as possible. This meant a lot of time outs. A LOT. Four time outs in four hours actually. However, things started paying off when I went to issue yet another warning about "using listening ears", and Little Monkey went straight to the time out mat on his own. This is probably because the process was pretty fresh from the first two time outs. I probably won't remember the condition that my kitchen was in, but we will all end up reaping the benefits of said discipline in the long run. It's like a long term investment!

3. What Really Matters. I found my kairos moments today. Watching Little Monkey play wearing nothing but a diaper, I became increasingly aware of all of his little developing muscles and was able to take a moment to praise God for how healthy he is. He can walk and run and concentrate, and roll over and laugh and feel and smile. What a huge blessing that is! I also found another kairos moment, but it didn't involve my son. It was when my husband and I were talking about his work day and he told me that he apologized to a coworker today after a tense situation. I realized that I am so blessed to have married a man who has the wisdom to discern a tense situation, the humility and grace to apologize for his own actions, and the courage to move forward in a positive way with his coworker. I married a good man. Kairos.


Well, that's all I've got. It's been a long day and I'm exhausted.
Here's a shout out to all the full-time mommies out there! You guys rock at holding the line at home all day! I can barely make it through a few days of summer - shows you what a wimp I am. But the beautiful thing is that I get to try again tomorrow!
- D