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My day usually starts with Reid waking up and ready to start the day. As little as he is, he likes a change of scenery and is okay with staying in bed for only so long before he is ready for me to get up and get moving. Once I do, I usually end up in Everett’s room where another anxious little boy is also ready to get the day started. And one of the first things he does to start his day is to reach for his baby brother and give him a hug and a kiss. And this is what he does every morning.
And that sweetness just happens to be my favorite way to start the day too.
I wrote a post about this and I say it almost every blog post but it still amazes me how much these two love each other. Nothing thrills my heart more than see my boys loving on one another.
Everett is always holding up his arms for his brother and kisses him all the time. If he isn’t trying to hold him he will sit next to him and try to put his arm around him. The thing that always makes me laugh though is when Everett hugs Reid and Reid will in turn grab Everett’s head with both hands and give him a great, big baby kiss. And Everett will pull away rubbing off the large amount of slobber that he is always confused to find on top of his head.
I love that they love each other so much.
And yes, there was one day where they matched. Dustin isn’t a fan of them wearing the exact same thing and normally I’m not either but I just so happened to have some of the same onsies in both of their sizes and I wanted to try it just once. I won’t do it often, if at all, but it was pretty cute.
This is an older picture but Everett still likes to “wrestle” with his brother.
And the other day he was excited when I helped him push Reid around on his toy airplane. This picture is blurry because I, for obvious reasons, had to move fast.
The boys are also doing great in another way. One Wednesday night we ended up staying at church until a quarter till 11. This of course was way after the boy’s bedtime but despite that they did great. Sure there were a few meltdowns but considering how tired I knew they were they were very small ones. I was not only proud of them, especially Everett, but also very relieved!
Immediately on the way home both boys were asleep. Everett was so tired that Dustin was able to bring him in the house, change him and put him to bed all without him waking up. Everett never does that. But Dustin is also more patient than I am with that sort of thing and he has skills.
And speaking of his skills, as a side note. I mentioned before that Dustin creates logos as a side job which is also something he really enjoys. On the way to my parent’s house one day we noticed that one of the logos he designed was on a billboard on a major highway. It was so very cool to see something he did displayed publicly where so many people will see it. I am very proud of him!
Despite all the love and sweetness I am keeping it real when I say that there are many, many moments where there is no sweetness and seems to be no love. It was this picture that I sent to a friend jokingly saying “I don’t care what anyone says. My life is glamorous!” Because you know it is but any mom will tell you that if you push away all the baby laughter, hugs and kisses and silly and loving moments you will find tears and tantrums, messy rooms, snotty noses and dirty diapers. It’s what you choose to dwell on that makes the difference.
But even when you dwell on the positive and the fun side of it all there are times when the other side can overwhelm you. Like when church is cancelled due to winter weather and your kids are having a day where you actually do not want a snow day. And so you throw them in the car to brave the weather which actually isn’t that bad and head to Target. Where once there your kids have meltdowns and now frustrated you head home fifteen minutes later and watch the clock every second to see if it’s bed time yet. And even though it’s really not you deem it close enough and put them in bed so you can breathe. Yeah, we have days like that too or days that are very similar.
But for the sake of not wanting to sound ungrateful we try to focus on the joys of having kids even though sometimes in those harried moments we have to remind each other just what those joys are. And those joys are watching your little men grow and explore the world. Watching them love one another and form a friendship and a special bond. There are joys in watching your child’s eyes light up when you come home and they haven’t seen you, when they come up to you with arms raised and want to snuggle. When they come over to play and give those great little baby laughs at your silly antics or little games.
And at the end of a day, whether good or bad, there is joy in knowing that there is truth to those cliche memes that circle the internet, that “your greatest contribution to the kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise.”
Parenting is so not easy and I don’t mean the cleaning, feeding, changing part but the raising, teaching, molding part. And it seems to me that it doesn’t get that much easier as they grow. But despite the overwhelming, chaotic, stressful days that come with it I am so very thankful that God gave us this blessing, this privilege to raise little men for Him. Everett and Reid may be ours for a time but they have always belonged to God. He, for some crazy reason, saw it fit to give them to us and as for me, I’m so glad He not only gave me two little men to love and raise but that He also gave me a “bigger” man who I get to live this life and raise these boys with. When you stop and really focus on the truth of this you realize that all these little joys are really one big blessing.
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