These last couple of weeks have been such an adventure for me as a mom. I was just starting to feel I had gotten things figured out with two boys...as they say "pride comes before the fall". Que teething baby and curious, mostly naughty little toddler to the scene.I am beginning to understand why most moms with multiple kids are constantly saying they don't get anything done. They are too busy trying to keep their children from killing themselves, their siblings, or making unnecessary messes with things they should not be playing with.
This week has been full of "those" kind of moments. Just yesterday, I came down stairs to see my son had "fed the fish", umm, almost the entire bottle of fish food. Yes it made me clean the tank, but lets just say if the fish doesn't keel over and die from stuffing himself, then he won't need to eat for a week!
This morning is another great example of the craziness of my toddler. I had given him peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast. Don't judge, being on the Whole30 diet doesn't give a lot of options for Ike and he doesn't love my breakfast of eggs and veggies very much. I guess I left the jar on the counter. I went to the living room to eat my breakfast in peace while he ate his in the dinning room.
You know that feeling you get as a mum when you realize all of a sudden that it is very quiet and you know that is not a good thing. I walk into the kitchen to find him sitting on the floor. His hand is covered in peanut butter and had eaten a little of the jar of peanut butter.
I laughed, took the jar from him, cleaned his hand, and told him that he couldn't eat peanut butter when ever he wanted and he needed to ask. I put up the peanut butter and went back to my tasks, thinking I had done such a good job teaching him to ask before taking.
Fast forward half hour: I come into the kitchen again. He smiles up at me, his face covered in peanut butter and his hand sticky with it. I pick up the jar...He had scraped it clean! He had eaten half a jar in one sitting. Crazy Child! Truth is, if I was his age and burned that many calories in a day, I might actually eat that much peanut butter as well! Oh to be young again!
You think that is all, well lets just say a tin with my favorite tea that my mother-in-law had brought home from England got dumped on the floor. And yes, I did pick up as much as I could...there may be a few hairs in the tea leaves now, but tea is tea. Is it possibly to cry over spilled tea?
There has been almost the death of my vacuum on several occasions over this last week when he has decided to stuff one of his cars up or down one of the pipes. Inevitably he would come to me distraught saying something was stuck. I managed to wiggle my fingers in the hose enough to save his precious cars and my trusty vacuum
One night he decided that Zed needed to be fed. Now this is normally his job, but he decided to feed him, Lets just say it was like a all you can eat buffet. Our flat coat retriever could eat till he died, much like the poor fish. I think I am starting to see a pattern here.
His newest adventure is one he hasn't taken up in months, because he knows he is not suppose to. He has taken to giving his cars "baths" in Zed's water bowl. Sigh. Lets just say big water mess all over the floor and sopping wet child.
I got a good laugh today though when I heard the dogs lapping up their water in a feverish pace. I come in and he had decided to feed the dogs. He had put their food in the water and they were feverishly trying to empty their bowls so they could eat their food.
In the midst of all of this, I have had some good moments, and some not so good moments. I was just thinking as I cleaned up another soggy mess in front of Zed's water bowl, "When will he get it! I tell him over and over again, and I correct him over and over, and yet he still goes back and does that same thing again, Even when he knows the outcome. I felt the Lord pricking at my heart. "Do you not also do this to me Child? Do you not listen to what I teach you, and yet turn around and do what you want? You know what is true and yet you walk in your own way."
May we all take moments to stop and remind ourselves of the big picture. We show grace to our children and love them and discipline them, because God first did those things for us. He has done all those things with greater abandon and absolute love than I will ever be able to. Praise God for giving us a perfect example to follow!
