realities of two

my life is full of good intentions lately.  i have plans every weekend to sit down and write a beautiful amazing post about how our daughter is growing up or the funny things that liam has been saying.  then life walks in and screws that all up.  the kids have total meltdowns complete with class-one diaper blowouts.  screaming and throwing of toys because one doesn't get to play with something immediately.  dinners are refused because "i don't like it" (even though he ate the same thing two weeks ago and love it)  and mountains of laundry appear and for some reason the more i fold the more laundry appears.  i don't get that one.  ahhh the lovely realities of parenthood.  i sometimes fantasize that there are magical laundry elves and one day they will come and do my laundry.  complete with folding, ironing and putting away of.

and while we're at it.  where are those timeout elves and diaper changing elves too?  don't get me wrong.  98% of the time i love life, my family and my children, and yes, sometime i don't even mind the laundry.  but let's get real.  parenting two children, making sure i spend time with my partner in crime and working full time can really take a toll on a lady.  i sometime feel like i'm in a constant battle with life.  that i'm running a race through an obstacle course to get to a place called "balance" does such as place even exist when you have a one year old and a three year old?  or is it just complete and total chaos until .... when?  or maybe balance is something that we try to achieve only because it keeps us going in the race purely to keep us going.  the reality of this proverbial race of raising two happy loving children is that it is daunting and exhausting.  and somewhere in between exhaustion, spilt milk, tantrums, timeouts, husband dates and report card deadlines is this thing called balance.

we'll just say that for now we're working on it.

life as a toddler

things have been rough this past week.  liam has been a total terror, handful and giant ball of emotion pretty much everyday over the last week or so.  i know that part of it has been due to a nasty cold that has made its round through our whole family, grandma included.  but the other part is a complete mystery.  the week before he was all cuddles, play with me, high-fives and kisses.  the last seven days its been the complete opposite.  tears, tantrums, throwing of toys, and many timeouts.  many.  i've found my frustrated self asking the question "is this is what is to come?"  then the reasonable part of me remembers ... this will pass and it's all part of growing up. 

it's funny.  liam is at an awkward age.  he can almost communicate with us to let us know what's going on, what he wants or needs.  but not quite.  i know that this is where the majority of the tantrums and tears come from and i constantly remind myself that it's not because he hates me.  which lets be honest, it can sometimes feel that way.  i too have had some tears this week over his very visible unhappiness.  it hurts when we can't make things better and happy all the time for our children.  all i can do is let him have it out and be there to snuggle, wipe away the tears and always tell him "i love you"  when it's over.  we do the same thing when he's had a timeout.  liam's actually pretty good about these.  he always gets a warning, usually "liam please don't throw your toys or you will have a timeout", then a toy is seen flying across the room.  i swear he does it just to see if we'll follow through.  we always do.  "liam, timeout" and off we go to the stairs.  there he'll sit, kicking the bottom stair until his minute is over.  always always always we get hugs and kisses after we explain why he was there and off he goes to play.

no matter what the tears will always dry up and eventually a smile returns in it's place.  but man it can be hard sometimes.  guess it's not easy as a toddler or a parent of one either.  it's all a part of the awesome adventure.  even through the tear and flying toys it is awesome.

oh and i promise i'm not really a horrible mom, liam was having a mini melt down when i was taking these pictures.  he was mad that i took away the keyboard he was attempting to smash on the ground.  what a mean mom i am.

and look how quickly his mood changed.  as soon as the keyboard was replaced with his sunglasses all was right in the world.  just look at that rad dude!

also, i have a 20 week bump update on the way, just no photo yet.  i'll try and get on that today.