and my frustration towards the kids growing and my headache getting stronger and my tolerance for every detail of life with three young kids lessening I grab my camera and start shooting.
It centers me. And calms me. And reminds me about what is important.
And it's a good thing I have my camera or this little girl might not have made it through the day! Seeing her through my lens I see her sweet smile, crazy hair and big beautiful eyes. Outside the lens I see this:
You may just see a baby playing, but notice the small pile of clothes? Oh yes. That would be accident number six for Parker today. And I swear to you, she's doing it on purpose! All day she wants to change her clothes. During nap she takes off her clothes and puts on whatever she can get out of her dresser drawers. She sneaks up there during the day too and comes back with new pants on. I started disciplining her b/c my laundry piles were growing exponentially and today I think she figured out a way around being punished... she pees on herself! I'm not kidding. She'll stand there, look at me, pee and then get an excited look on her face. She'll go sit on the potty and then run happily up to her room to get new pants. And then take 10 minutes working to get them on by herself.
"ME! Momma! MEEEEE!" she screams at me when I offer to help.
All day. Pants on. Pee. Pants off.
I will say that I'm proud of her for being able to dress herself already, Bailey just started doing that recently, but I will also say that if I thought she would go back in a diaper I would duck tape it to her!
Example of where my day really went downhill...
Bailey had to be at school in 25 minutes and I was just about to buckle Grayson into the car seat when parker said she had to go potty. So I stopped, put Gray in the saucer and took her to the bathroom. She peed on the way there. We get in there, I take off her shoes (soaked in pee), her tights and underwear, sit her on the toilet and tell her to stay put while I run upstairs and get her new clothes. When I came back down, 2 minutes later, I found her walking around leaving little poop footprints all over the kitchen. I had to clean up the mess, clean up her, dress her, change myself, scrub my hands (so so raw) and get out the door. We got Bailey to school not all that late and Grayson to his chiropractor appointment on time. It was a miracle. It put me in a horrible mood.
On a lighter and less poopy note, I took the camera with me to the chiropractor in case any of you are curious about what they do to babies!
That is Dr. Brenda, as the girls call her (I will post her info tomorrow b/c we LOVE her and would recommend her to ANYONE, but I'm too lazy right now to get up and get her card to link her!), and she's awesome. I really really like her. I love her staff too, they are always sweet to the kids when we come in, they've held Grayson so I could take the girls to the bathroom and everything! Love them there!
Anyway, in that first photo she is adjusting his back. He lays on me and I lay on the table. He has never fussed and usually just laughs at me so I know there is no pain for him.
The girls love watching!
I love LOVE this shot I got! After she does his back, I get up and he lays by himself on the table with her sitting behind his head. She adjusts his neck and he's not a huge fan of this part. Mainly b/c he's been really swollen and sore from the ear infections so it has been a bit painful, but also, I think, b/c he's looking up at someone he doesn't know well and he's a pretty solid momma's boy right now. I just love how confused he looks here! Don't his eyebrows just kill you?
What has been amazing is watching the difference from our first visit until today... each time he's been less and less sore and today there were no tears. Well, until Parker hit him!
Ahhh well. Sisters.
So anyway, in case you've been wondering, he's been twice a week for three weeks now and I've seen a huge improvement... especially in the fact that this is the longest he's been without an ear infection in over 2 months! We're going to keep going although she's moved us back to just once a week and is hoping to get him down to once or twice a month. If you have any questions or want more details about what she's doing, etc. please comment or email and I'll go into depth more for you.
So today was pretty bad on many accounts. Getting everyone out the door, poop+pee everywhere, so much never-ending laundry, a house I clean all day and can't seem to keep clean, sending my mom on my errands, a crabby boy, Parker not napping, Bailey being overly tired from going back to school this week, me not being as busy and starting to lose my mind. I think I must thrive on my crazy life b/c cleaning the house all day, wiping tushes and reading books (I think we read for a solid hour today!)just isn't as fun when I don't have projects on my mind. I start to tumble into mommy depression. I guess I don't make a good SAHM.
BUT. What I love is that when the day seems to really be heading down the crapper all I have to do is pick up my camera, look at my kids through my lens and the day gets better.
(Parker changing her baby's diaper!)
Chris laughs that I have this sitting on our tv in the front room, but I need a daily reminder of this!
Love life! And pray that Thursday is better!
