Mom, We're Just a Couple of Crazy Kids

When the kids have been acting a little zany lately Cosette just tells me "Mom, we are just a couple of crazy kids". The first time she told me that I laughed so hard. She has told me that when I have gone in their room after bedtime and they are still awake, and when they have made a mess building lego castles, and when they are racing each other around the apartment both proclaiming "I won" at the finish line. And when I think about it, yeah life with kids is a little bit crazy. But it is the best kind of crazy there is.  These photos are from a night when they told me they were just a couple of crazy kids. I do not know what we did that day, except laundry because it is in the background of these photos, but I will always remember the happiness that was exuding from these kiddos and the happiness that filled me on the inside being a part of this.

And this face just cracks me up.

 Lyndon's hours pretty much since the new year begun have been really intense. Me and the kiddos have been on our own most of the time. And if I was not dealing with the pregnancy exhaustion everything would be almost a piece of cake. This stage of life with the kids is really busy, really, really busy.  But it has been really fun! I'm so grateful that I have had more energy this pregnancy, because with Lyndon's hours and my active kiddos it is a miracle I am not pulling my hair out and crying all the time. I do pretty much collapse on the couch at the end of the day, but it is usually with a smile. Life with them is so great. The mundane everyday tasks have to be done, but these two manage to spice those things up. It is great knowing that I have a purpose in life, to be there mother, take care of them, teach them, help them become the best person they can be. Sometimes I lose perspective on that. 

I have probably written this a lot, but the day I became a mother was the best day of my life. I had never felt so fulfilled and so much love as I did that very first day of my daughter's life. That first year of her life was really hard battling mono, combined with the lack of sleep a newborn brings, and with the enormous life changing event becoming a parent is. There was a lot of mental, physical, and emotional things going on during that time, it was overwhelming. Even with all those trials that first year had it is also one of the most treasured times of my life. It was the first time in my life that I felt fulfilled with what I was doing. It was over the top fulfillment that I had never experienced before. I was so at peace with everything. It was beautiful. I had never felt that way in school or working before I was married or had kids. I write this to remind myself for those days when these two are truly crazy kidd and everything seems so overwhelming I want to crawl into bed and draw the covers over my head. What I am doing now is worth it. I will never regret the choices I have made regarding motherhood. I would regret not doing what I am doing now. I am not getting paid buckets of gold, people walking down the street might yell or passive aggressively tell me how I am a terrible parent, or my kids are suffering because they are not wearing a hat, but none of that matters. Gold is nice, but I'd rather have it in the form of jewelry. Those people don't know me, so what they say does not matter. And people we have hats, but that does not mean the kid will wear them! My writing kind of went in a more serious direction than this funny anecdote about my children telling me they are just crazy kids, but I mean every word I am writing. 

I am grateful for this time on my own with the kids because we have grown very close. We have become the bestest buds, the three musketeers! I treasure all this time I get with them. They are only little once, and I can deal with these crazy kids because they are only going to be kids for a little while. This funny little phrase Cosette says to me reminds me how joyous being their mother is. I love them, my two crazy kids.