A Morning in Toddlerhood

 We had one objective this morning which was to get out of the door by 9:30 am for a friend's baby blessing. Things were looking good in the morning, and I thought we would be on time. Then my daughter, who is now two, wanted to wear her princess dress. I didn't want her to wear her new dress up Rapunzel dress, so I attempted to put on her pretty glittery pink dress. It was a fight that she was determined to win. I gave up on that battle, and just let her wear her princess dress. 

She ran into the other room, and took off her diaper and her dress. This became a fun game, that she wanted to repeat. Take off dress and diaper, and have mom put it back on. After multiple times of this process, she proceeded to climb up the bookcase to get the tv remote. I got her off the bookcase, and turned on a show to distract her.

This allowed me time to eat breakfast. My daughter saw me eat my breakfast and wanted to join in. I gave her a bowl of cereal, and she at first was eating and smiling at me. It was a cute moment. Then, she dumped the cereal in the bowl and ran to grab the cereal box and dumped it all over. 

I cleaned up the mess, and she wanted to help. She grabbed the broom, and tried to sweep up the cereal. I let her up me and the process took twice as long. But she was so happy to help me clean it up. 

I won't go through the whole morning, but this snapshot was what my morning looked like as I just wanted to have everyone ready with shoes on out the door by 9:30. 

We ended up leaving around 10:00 am, and getting there after the baby blessing. I got into the church building, and my kids were just active. It was a quiet meeting, and my kids were the exact opposite. I needed to open up their goldfish, get the busy books out, and separate my kids when they both wanted the same toy. The people behind me just smiled and told me how cute my kids were. The man behind me played peek a boo with my daughter, and she would pop up and down. 

Another older women in the meeting from across the room got my attention and gave me a thumbs up. She mouthed, "you are doing a great job". I said thank you, and then I realized that my kids noise were not annoyance, but they were simply just being kids.    

 I saw my friend with her two week old baby, and I apologized for missing the baby blessing. I told her that we had a morning where the diaper wouldn't stay on, and I just couldn't get everyone out the door on time. She nodded and said she knew those mornings. She told me that we should duck tape diapers on toddlers, and I laughed. A sense of relief and gratitude came for friends and strangers in my life who supported me and validated my parenting. 

I thought about the stranger from across the room who gave me a thumbs up. Could she see the exhaustion on my face? Did she know how I needed to know that my kids were welcome in their active and busy state? 

I think we need more voices like that in the world now. Parenting is hard, and simply just showing up can feel like a lot with young children. Getting out the door can sometimes feel like a process. Simply keeping a diaper on my toddler can feel like an accomplishment. 

The rest of the day, the diaper stayed on and no more cereal was dumped on the floor. We spent quality time with our friends, and our children were welcomed at church just as they were — loud, busy, playful, and little. Maybe success as a parent is not having a perfect morning or arriving on time. Maybe sometimes success is simply loving your children through the chaos and showing up anyway.