(Ha ha...Like these gems were sent to me when I was at the gym.)
I felt a lot better about my workout suddenly.
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| Is this even for real? How did I function? |
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| Thought I'd capture this beautiful moment myself the night before the boys were to be born. This looks alien. |
As I was sitting by the side of the pool the afternoon of February 7, 2019, my mind kept flashing back to five years ago on this day, 2-7-14.
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| Ready for action |
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| Whoa. We just had three babies.(From left to right: James, Caleb and Levi Patton.) |
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| SUDDENLY SIX! |
What if someone could have whispered in my ear back then that this moment would come!!?!
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| Fabulous FIVE! |
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| Could this only be FOUR years ago...celebrating turning ONE?! |
Oh, people told me to look at the big picture of it all; BUT how could I possibly see the BIG PICTURE?!!
I remember holding each of my sons, trying to take in who they were, savoring this newborn moment like everyone tells you to do; yet in my mind, I thought, How is this going to work?
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| Oh, those BABY years! |
Oh, those early days, of wheeling all three infants in their little car seats through the hospital for their check ups. We always created such a spectacle.
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| Here comes the crazy train; don't miss this contraption. |
One time I remember going in to the doctors for a feeding consultation and nearly passing out because I was so weak and tired and cut up still; I had to be wheeled out too. I remember sitting in that wheel chair, limp, depressed, overwhelmed, bleeding, hurting, crying.
That was a low point.
BUT, Time goes by! It really really does! My kids are proof!
In between the really hard moments were moments of joy and milestones and celebration!
Sitting, crawling, walking, talking, eating, sleeping, climbing, preschool, potty training, laughing!!!
My life is FULL!
The last five years I've had to do some really hard deep work on myself. I know I've said this before, but it's truly impossible to really recognize or acknowledge how selfish you are until you have a child of your own. You might not think that you are, but when a little human suddenly comes into your life, it changes the orbit of everything.
When Our family went from two to three, I saw the worst parts of myself. I never knew how used I got to sleeping when I wanted to, eating when I wanted to and doing what I wanted when I wanted!
When we went from three to six, well, my life just was completely and totally not my own. In fact, this blog was really the only little part of me that I held on to in order to create and cling to a small piece of me, of my creativity.
The forest path behind our home is a place that my girlfriends and I joke about (in all seriousness) where we go when life just gets to be too much.
It's a great place to kind of just wander and look at big trees and the river.
But then there were other times with my kids when I'd bring a baseball bat with me, just in case.
Anyhow, I think the biggest concept that I've had to wrap my mind around and I keep coming back to is recognizing that no one promised LIFE TO BE EASY OR PERFECT. In fact, if I view life as an uphill journey, I am able to recognize, delight and appreciate the "downhills."
And my true belief is that THE BEST IS YET TO COME! I didn't say EASY or that all the hard things have passed; for some reason AGE 5 is this significant number in my mind that represents more maturity and independence and fun.
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| Oh man, this stroller.......😳 |
We celebrated their special birthday with our tradition of going to dinner at Red Robin. The kids get ice cream sundaes and the servers sing a silly birthday song. It's become a place of celebration.
During the week, each boy got to claim one of their preschool days as their special day. The teacher made them a crown and brought them up to the front of the class to share their personal poster and birthday treats. This is the first time that their birthdays got recognized individually! It was really special and different for them.
James loves food. He seems to have a small stomach though. He'll be SO Hungry, eat a few bites, be "full" and then come back for more in what seem like a few minutes.
At Red Robin there is even more opportunity to be stuffed. I've been trying to talk to him about recognizing his satiety signals and stop before it's too late.
But at Red Robin, He ate.
He ate burgers and fries and then when he was done with that, he sucked down a really fudgy slushy ice cream sundae through a soda straw. I swear I could see the chocolate sauce in his eyeballs. There has never been a happier boy though.
However, he was miserable the rest of the night because he ate too much. In fact, he woke me up a few times during the night complaining of a stomach ache. At about 3 am, he vomited on my shoulder. I put him back to bed with a blue bucket beside him, explaining that if he needed to throw up anymore, he could do it in there.
I didn't know what to expect the next morning. However, at about 7:30, James comes down stairs with a huge happy smile on his face. "I feel better Mom," he says. "Here's the bucket." He holds out the blue bucket to me, empty.
I swear, Caleb hasn't stopped smiling since day 1.
The first thing he said to me on his birthday was "Mom, I'm 5 today....but I'm still small enough for you to carry me." He knows that since he is the littlest, I carry him when he is lagging behind. In fact, he is really the only one I carry anymore.
I know he will be ok with that still for awhile.
And I'm ok with that too.
