What Little Sneaks

I had a rough day with the kids.  Most of the day anyway.  As I predicted, Christian was up at 4:45 this morning after his super early bedtime last night.  I tried everything in my bag of tricks to get him to fall back asleep, even crawling in bed with him, but it all proved fruitless.  Finally around 5:30, I put an episode of "Dora" on my phone and let him watch while I tried to snooze.  No luck.  After one episode Christian was done with being in bed.  We moved our operation to the living room, where I could do nothing right, and Christian just yelled at me.  I was on the verge of a breakdown, when Nick came to the rescue.  He took over parent duty, and sent me back to bed.

I slept for almost two hours, which was amazing, and came back downstairs to find the rest of my family in great moods.  Unfortunately for me, the great moods left when Nick left for work.  The kids, especially my boy, pushed me on every issue, all day.  When I got them down for naps, I breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Both kids woke up complaining, and I braced myself for a tough afternoon.  But then something amazing happened.  As soon as I set both of them on the couch, they were happy.  They snuggled under a blanket together, and agreed on a movie, with no complaining on either end.  I made them hot cocoa and popcorn, and they smiled, said thank you, and basically made me fall back in love with them and forget all about the torture they dished out earlier.  What little sneaks.  Even though I'm a seasoned veteran in the trenches of parenthood, a moment like this can still take me completely by surprise.  It's a beautiful trap, and one I'm happy to fall for, every time.