Seize This!

Tonight I walked into the bathroom to find Reed had pooped in the tub, immediately pulled it out and set it on the side of the tub like a prize! My mouth dropped open and he said "you can take a picture if you want!" Well I happened to have my phone on me so I did just that, cleaned it up and immediately started texting! I need my mommy friends to sympathize with me, cry with me and laugh with me through this journey of motherhood. I did end up on the floor laughing so hard I cried. This made Reed laugh really hard which was cute and funny because he didn't realize I was laughing at him! There is nothing more magical to my ears than the sound of my children's laughter!

I recently read two very contradictory blog posts regarding motherhood. One was all about how everyone tells you "carpe diem" and to seize every moment when in fact, not every moment is worth holding onto! As parents, we get peed on, puked on, kicked, smacked, bit, yelled at, humiliated by public tantrums and every indignity imaginable. And yet, people tells us to cherish this time because we'll miss it. And we are sitting here just trying to survive. I loved this blog that said hey, it's ok to wish some things would end! It doesn't make you a bad mom. It makes you a normal human being who doesn't enjoy negative things!

I just read another one online called "This too Shall Pass" that talks about again, how we should cherish the moments, only this one was more supportive of that. It talks about how we'll miss this time and long for the day that our children were this age so we shouldn't let the bad thigns get us down. We shouldn't take anything for granted because we're going to miss these days. So again with the carpe diem.

Here are two very different schools of thought. Is it ok to wish away the bad moments? Does that make us a bad parent or mean that we don't appreciate the good? Or should we sit here and thank the Lord for the poo in the tub, the tantrum in the next room and dinner burning on the stove?

So this is the conclusion I've come to: it's a healthy balance of both seizing the moments (the good ones), cherishing the wonderful things of this particular age and realizing it's ok to say, I'm not going to miss tantrums and poo stories! I ADORE my kids. I have a thousand magical, memorable moments a day that I know I will miss! But when it comes to the moments where I find poo on my tub, I say, seize THIS!