Miss Know-It-All | What I Thought I Knew

Before I was a mom myself, I found it super easy to look around and decide just how I would be as a mother, and just how my children would act.

In my mind, I was going to be super mom.

Me?  My diaper bag would be neatly organized and, much like Mary Poppins, would hold every single item that my children and I might ever need.  I would never yell; only reprimanding in the sweetest, most gentle tone.  I would laugh off messes and spills with a bubbly, "Uh oh!" instead of letting out an exasperated sigh and dramatically grabbing paper towels while giving my kids the "I told you that was going to happen if you put your cup too close to the edge" look.  I would certainly never give in and give them some kind of bribe just to make it through a trip to the store.  I'd sit and calmly do crafts with them daily, never stressing out when the PlayDoh colors began to get mixed into one gray-brown clump of gross.  I would put a firm limit on the number of "No's" that left my mouth in the course of the day.

Them?  Why, they'd be perfectly delightful, of course.  Tantrums wouldn't happen more than once, because they'd quickly learn that that kind of behavior gets them no where.  They would eat veggies.  They'd always cover their sneezes and would certainly understand the difference between outside voice and inside voice.  Not a whiny voice would their sweet mouths make.  And they would have the self control to never ask loudly, "Why does that lady have a mustache, mommy?!"

Life is funny.  I had all of this figured out, then found myself pregnant with Kate in 2007.  I knew at 5:45pm on November 18th, 2007 that I was in trouble.  The nurse told me we'd start pushing shortly and that, my friends, is when it hit me.  I have no idea what I'm doing.

The older Kate got, the more I realized how hilariously clueless I'd been about parenthood. Then we added Will to the family- my dramatic tantrum boy. By the time Kennedy cruised into the fam, it was all too clear that perfect, fairy tale children do not really exist... but honestly, if they did, I don't think I'd want one.  What fun would that be?

We've learned a lot of lessons in the last few years.  Lessons about patience; lessons about priorities... the different things we've learned are too many to count.  I've certainly learned to "never say never".  I didn't think I'd ever let my kids go to Costco in the crazy dress-up outfits they chose.  I didn't image myself letting the kids have dessert if they didn't finish their dinner.  And you know, sometimes I win and sometimes I lose, but I've become fairly comfortable picking my battles.  I guess that is just part of motherhood.  That, and walking around in public with only one hand of painted fingernails, because the baby woke up before I could finish the other hand.  That's part of motherhood too.  Oh yeah, and yoga pants.  Important part.

So life is busy.  My mini-man turned two at the end of July and other than the daily occasional tantrum, he is the cutest, sweetest little boy ever created.

I have a special soft spot for him, because he is our only boy.  There is something so sweet about little boys and their innocent chaos.  So many people told me that I'd be shocked at the difference between the way that a little girl plays vs. the way a little boy plays; honestly, I wrote it off as cliche.  But for real, they are so different.  While Kate would color, look at books and be generally peaceful, Will would rather climb, fall off of stuff and break crap.  But it's all so innocently done... I don't even know how that makes sense, but its the truth.  He's just so darn cute.

Poor, sweet Kate cannot wait for school to start again, because clearly, I am a boring person to be around all day, every day.  While we've been busy enough, there still isn't enough in her day to make her feel like we've done all the coolest stuff ever.

We have crossed plenty of things from her summer fun list, though!  So far, we've crossed off quite a few items...
- Go to the zoo
- Play in the pool
- Blow bubbles with bubble gum (well... she tried at least)
- Make crafts
- Make our own rock candy
- Play at the park
- Blow bubbles
- Ride bikes
- Make strawberry cake (ok, technically we made strawberry muffins, but it works)
- Play with make-up

And many more!  She's even completed two different weeks of Vacation Bible School- so much fun!  Soccer is over and we've moved on to T-ball.  Turns out she is more of a soccer girl than she is a t-ball girl... there's too much standing around in t-ball to keep her attention, I'm afraid.

And Kennedy keeps growing.  I keep feeding her and she keeps growing.  Milestones and growth are fun things, but let's be honest, my heart breaks a little each time my tiny baby grows.  Each milestone is one more step on the way out of babydom.  And being our last... well, let's not even talk about that.  It makes my heart hurt too much to know that one day, I will not have a baby in my home.  I know- I'm a little dramatic, but really.

Seriously?!  I hate feet- hate them.  But baby feet are in a totally different universe than big people feet. Every single little toe is deliciously perfect.  Ah, piggies.

I think we're officially beginning the teething phase... that might explain why it has taken me so long to update the blog.  Because she doesn't sleep ever.  Except for right now... and hence, blog update!  But she looks so sweet chewing on her fingers.  Okay, yes.  I think she looks sweet doing everything... even her crying face is pretty cute.

I am getting super excited for school to start and for the schedule to be rolling again.  Kate starts on September 10th and I know Jr. Kindergarten will be a blast.  She is in this strange in-between age group this year because of some changes in California.  This school year, children must be 5 years old by November 1st to enter into Kindergarten.  That is 17 days too early for Miss Kate to make the cut-off, so she'll do a year of Junior Kinder.  I'm actually really ok with that- many of her friends from school will go into Kinder this year, only to repeat it again next year.  In the end, she'll end up in the same school year as most of the friends she has, so it isn't a huge deal.  Plus, with so many people choosing to hold their children back on purpose, I think it will benefit her to wait another year in the long run.  So thank you, Lord, for one more year before Kindergarten... I don't think my heart was ready for that milestone yet!

That's it for now... I've got two out of three babies sleeping, emails to answer and Pinterest projects to complete!  Ready, set, go!