secrets about motherhood.

A few nuggets of wisdom about life with a three year old:

The Toilet:
Isn't 'me' time great? A moment to do something or absolutely nothing ... for you, by you, and only you. Life with a toddler doesn't lend to a lot of 'me' time. Even though Nate is three and completely capable of entertaining himself for a few moments, he sticks to me like glue. Not only does Nate follow me into the restroom, usually he brings the dogs. I have an entire audience constantly. If that's not a cure for a shy bladder, I'm not sure what is. I'm not ready an anatomy lesson, so I try my hardest to keep him distracted. What works? This!

Thank goodness for electronic distractions! And thanks to Nate learning how to a.) pee standing up and b.) shake 'it'  when he's done, the bathroom rugs and floors are cleaned on a near daily basis.

Clutter:
My style: clean, clutter-free, organized.
Nathan's style: Toys are good, more is better, having the ability to see all of your possessions at one time is best (a.k.a. his everything strewn everywhere)

I had a day off but this week but because of being really sick last week, my house needed a deep cleaning. So Nate went to school and I spent the day cleaning the house. The floors, the kitchen, the laundry, the beds, the bathrooms. Everything. It was spectacular! Nate came home and quickly made his room live up to his standards again. Every night when he goes to sleep, he crams every stuffed animal that he owns into the bed and then squeezes himself in. It's noteworthy to point out that Nate has a full-sized bed.

It astounds me how much stuff this child has! Of course, I am very much to blame because I find myself buying him something new nearly every time that I'm out. It's a vicious and self-induced cycle, y'all.  

Stickers:
Forget money, this guy's true form of currency is stickers. From rewarding good behavior at daycare to pure entertainment, Nate loves his stickers. And I find them everywhere - the laundry, stuck to the floor, on our shoes, on my sweater when I'm halfway through a day in the office. If you can't have fun with the things that bug you, what's the use? (your eyes don't deceive you - trying out a Google auto-awesome below!)

Lies:
I'll end tonight's post with a seemingly down note that I hope to wrap right back up with a positive spin. It's no big shock that parents don't get enough sleep - it's something that our culture simultaneously pities and doles out respect for. Sleep is for the weak, right? We don't lie about not sleeping because it's a badge of honor and we have a whole little person to show for it.

What parents don't glamorize is the torturous bad or obnoxious behavior that they put up with every day. On a given night, we will have our share of tantrums, stubbornness, impatience (for example - Nathan just asked me for crackers about twenty times over the last two minutes), and sobbing fits for no good reason. And the pictures? I think I take about 200 pictures and only post the really happy or artistic three or four that come out.  Case in point, tonight Nate wanted to color but got upset that when he opened his crayon box, one single crayon fell out. One. The gall of that crayon! So, Nate spent the next twenty minutes crying about it, like this:

But what was the photo that I put up on Facebook? No, not the crying one. I put the one up where he picked up a crayon for about thirty seconds and looked like he was concentrating. It was a short-lived burst of silence and just like that, coloring time drew (bad pun) to a close...

Why the secrets? Why do we not fully divulge what motherhood entails freely?

Because we're so in love with and proud of our kids! I want to share all of the good things, because those are what sticks with me and what motivates me through the pre-naptime hours. Because I know that time is fleeting and pretty soon he won't want to be with me every waking moment of the day...and when that happens, my heart will break a little bit and swell with pride at the same time, because he's growing up.  Because I know that toys for little boys only get more expensive and I can put up with buying some plastic superheroes rather than phones and gaming systems. Because I know that one day, Nate will figure out what money really does rather than just putting "coins" in his bank...and when he does, we're in trouble! Making Nate learn to work for his rewards is something that I am trying to implement now to avoid a train wreck later. Finally, we keep our secrets because we want to see the best in our children and help them learn to draw upon their strengths.