First day of Kindergarten!
But first, let me rewind a week and truly acknowledge the reality of a four year old, a two year old a baby.
Following a blog can be fun, it can give you great ideas for things to do with your kids or if you follow any food blogs like I do, it can be GREAT for recipes.. but it can also make you think "oh my gosh.. how can she do all of that with all of her kids".. "She must be supermom".. "what is wrong with me.. why can't I do everything and then some.."
Stop right there... the reality is that we all still have kids.. and kids have bad days.. no matter who you are. And last week was a HORRIBLE week for me and my kids. Like literally, the worst attitudes around! I was exhausted and my kids were.. well.. awful! All three of them were having melt downs every other minute and I had ZERO patience left each day by 8:00 AM! It truly was a pull you hair out kind of week. Carter was being insane. He wouldn't listen to A THING I said, he would deliberately disobey me. He would throw his toys across the room, hit his bother, constantly pick up his sister and put her in places she didn't want to be. He would tease Bentley about having the "better plate" at dinner or the "cooler car" .. oh my gosh the list was NEVER ENDING!! Bentley was also crazy. The smallest things would bother him. Things that usually don't seem to make him angry were making him super upset and he would SCREAM! Like break glass, pierce your ears kind of screaming. Penny is teething again I think so she was super irritated and crying.. ALL DAY LONG... she only wanted to be held and only by me.. so needless to say.. our home was TRASHED! Clothes were everywhere.. dinner dishes from two nights before were still on the counter and I was a wreck!
So although blogs may seem "totally put together 24/7" - they are not. Behind closed doors.. we can still totally be a complete wreck, which I was last week.
I had so many times last week of "I am such a bad mom" and "Brian, Ive tried everything.. I don't know what else to do..." "I wish I could handle this better"... and the tears... Oh, the tears were flowing! I was completely exhausted and completely defeated. I was just DONE.
The problem with being "done" is that you're a mom, you are never done. But good try. Being a Mom can be so hard. It can be totally exhausting, and that's ok. On Sunday night.. after 7 days of horribly bad behaved children, and after a big family dinner at our house...
...I totally broke down. Got into the tub and cried like a baby.
Brian to the rescue.. again! I thank the Lord everyday for such an incredible husband. He told me everything I needed to hear and I am so thankful for him. My family is different from others and I think too often we Moms are too busy comparing ourselves to other moms and thats what makes us feel so defeated. We are a family and no matter what kind of day we have, we are together and thats all that matters. We will always have good days and bad days, but we are blessed.
Because last week was HORRIBLE, I was so excited for Carter to start Kindergarten!! In fact, I called my mom throughout last week and said "Mom! I am such a bad Mother.. everyone is talking about how they are going to cry on the first day of Kindergarten and I am so excited!!" (we both got a good laugh). Carter was really excited to start Kindergarten and today he was in such a good mood!
After lunch today he said "Hey Mom, if I do good in Kindergarten can I get a Kinder Egg because it says "Kinder" in it?" Hahaha.. nice try buddy!
I was so excited to walk him to school. We live really close to the school so it is literally a 3 minute walk. He got his shoes on, his backpack on and we we headed out. The whole way I could just tell how excited he was! He said so many cute things.. you could tell his mind was going a hundred miles a minute .. mid walk he turned to me and says "MOM!! Is my needle in my bag!?" (Carter has an Epi-pen for his peanut allergy that he has to take everywhere he goes just incase) I respond "Yes". Then right after he says "OH! What about my indoor shoes!?" I smile and respond "yes". We get to the school and check in with his teacher "Mrs. Huxtable". We had a few minutes to spare so we waited together watching all the other kids in his class check in. He was seriously on cloud 9!!
After a few minutes of "people watching" Carter turns to me and pulls on my hands so I am at his height and says in the cutest most sweet voice "Im so glad Im not going to school this year and only to Kindergarten." What a little sweetheart. At this point I was confident I wasn't going to cry.. I was still super excited (I mean, I get a BREAK!)
Mrs. Huxtable called to all the children in her class to come and stand in a line right behind her. As all the children did, she said "Touch your head" - all the kids did. "Touch your shoulders" - all the kids did "Touch your knees" - all the kids did "Touch your mouth" .. all the kids did and then she said "Ok and turn around and blow your Mom a great big Kiss!!.. Carter turned around and blew me a kiss and then this....
Then, the unthinkable happened... I started CRYING! What the!? I was so excited and wasn't sad AT ALL until that moment.. then I couldn't hold it together!
I cried the entire walk home. My baby is in Kindergarten! It feels like just yesterday I was holding him in my arms for the very first time and completely falling in love all over again.
I am so proud of him. He had such a great day! He said his teacher was really nice and he met lots of new friends but cannot remember their names. He said his classroom has a fish which he loves and he also said that is is "super excited" to go back everyday.
My heart is full. All of my thoughts of last week's disaster week were gone and I was totally head over heals again for my stubborn four year old.
So Carter... Mommy loves you SO SO much! Here's to the future class of 2028!
On another note.. Penny is 11 months old today!! What the heck! In one month, my baby girl will be ONE! That just seems crazy!
You can totally tell this sweet baby has two older brothers. She can play hard and when they tackle her (which they know they're not aloud to do) she doesn't even cry.. sometimes she even laughs. When her brothers do something she doesn't like.. she lets out the loudest high pitch scream in her defence.
She still likes to cuddle me and LOVES her bath time.. she seriously goes CRAZY in the bath. She will even put her whole face in the water a hundred times in the bath because she thinks its funny. She LOVES her souther just like her brothers did (and Bentley still does) and LOVES it when Daddy gets home. She truly is a little sweetie pie and she is all ours!
And well, as for Bentley.. what a cutie!
But seriously, I need to take his southers away... he doesn't even care which souther he has.. even if its his sister's newborn pink southers... he just loves them all.. Im going to have to get creative again to take these away.
Lets all just pray this week is nothing like last week. Yes, this picture of Bentley was taken last week.. as you can tell but his angry look. Hahaha.