Sometimes the essence of parenthood is best seen in our prayers, because night after night, Paul & I speak words to this effect:
Dear Heavenly Father-
We are so thankful for our amazing daughters & how special they are.
Please help Taya to learn obedience .... (most recent plea)
And please help us to learn patience.
......
.........
In Jesus' name, Amen.
A call for help for obedience, and an even greater need - for patience & gentleness, but first and foremost, an expression of gratitude for the gift of these girls.
***
No matter the difficulties parenting brings, we find ourselves in amusement, gratitude & awe over our girls every single day (currently we are losing our marbles because Taya is repeatedly coming out from nap & bed time over and over and over and over and over ... again [oh, she's been in a toddler bed for several months already, this is just random :) - I know this is a small example of kid woes, but it's a bit real at the moment!]. If anyone is ever teetering on having children, or having a 2nd or 3rd child, take the leap! I've thought many times how I can't imagine anything in the world that gives as much joy, laughter, learning, stretching, growing, perspective, and gratitude as parenting does. And if there is anyone reading this who is trying & yearning for children or for another child, I would imagine your trial has the opportunity to help you stretch and grow in ways we can't fathom. I frequently think of those I know & even don't know who so badly want to get pregnant, and every time it reminds me to strengthen my gratitude for my daughters.
****
Oh, and guess who rolled over yesterday! Dyllan's rollin, rollin, rollin ...
****
Oh, and guess who rolled over yesterday! Dyllan's rollin, rollin, rollin ...
5 comments:
Hey Breanne,
I know everyone has different parenting styles and philosophies and what not, so this may or may not help.
The lock on our girls' room is turned around and locks on the outside. (Which is awesome if Grace ever gets busted and need to stay in her room for my sake and hers.)
Julie just switched to a toddler bed 3 nights ago. She gets about 3 chances to stay in by herself (or not stay in:), and then I tell her "Julie, if you come out again I will have to close the door." (Julie can't open the door). She does, and I do. She screams for about 3 min. until I go in and talk to her, tell her to stay in or I have to close the door, and she'll stay.
But I think I am probably 10X meaner of a mom than you.
Good luck! It seems like just when you've got a good routine down, or something is going totally fine, it totally changes. Keeps life refreshing, huh:)
And I'm a 10x meaner mom than Marie, so I guess that makes me 100x meaner than you Breanne, if I did my math right. When our little ones won't stay in bed, we invite them to sleep in the backyard. And escort them out there. Then they choose their bed and stay there.
Then I must be one hundredth the mean mom Jana is and a tenth what Marie is.
With James I get him into the routine an hour before hand. Brushing teeth, prayers, hugging and kissing everyone goodnight. Wrapping up his evening tv show. Then we both lay down together and I sing him nursery songs or church hymns, rub his head, give him lots of hugs and kisses and let him fall asleep. Sometimes (and rarely) it takes but a few seconds. Seems like most times it takes 10-15 minutes. But I'm pretty wiped by then too.
I miss them so much during the day, I don't have it in me to be mean mom at night. It's the last memory they have of me before they see me again when I pick them up from the babysitter.
BTW my dr. suggested Marie's method but I just couldn't do it.
Ah, those prayers must be the "Parents" prayer...so familiar! :D
Post a Comment