Lee, Me, and the Girls: I Am That Mom: Dara

When I started thinking about what to write in this post, I sent a message to some of my friends and family and asked them to sum up what they thought of me as a mom in 1 word. Here are the responses I received: patient, creative, fun, encompassing love. These texts made me smile and these all are things that I really do strive to be. And feel like I fail miserably at sometimes. My little sassy girl turned 3 at the beginning of December and hit the terrible 3's in pretty full force. I kept reminding myself that she did the same thing when she turned 2 the year before. I kept telling myself that these phase would pass. I think we have weathered the worst of it. Caroline brings me more joy and happiness than I ever thought was possible. Her smile can melt my heart in a split second. Talking to her is like talking to a miniature me a lot of the time. It makes me realize I should really watch the words and tone of voice I choose to use. This sweet little girl can also drive me crazy! We hit a point at times where I have to yell at her to make her listen because nothing else works. I really hate yelling, but I hate when she disobeys even more.

I feel like I earned some merit badges of parenting this year. In the span of 3 months, we had a visit to the ER for stitches in her forehead on her 2nd day of school (see previous post), a day in the outpatient wing of the children's hospital (tonsils and adenoids out and tubes in her ears), and a weird infection that grew rapidly on her thumb over a few hours that resulted in a few visits to the doctor and had to be drained. I can't imagine what parents who have seriously ill children have to deal with. I know that we are lucky to only have to deal with this minor things.

To sum it up, I am that mom... *who rambles (see above!) *that used be so crafty and creative when I worked in a preschool program but has to force myself to do crafts with my kiddo *that wishes I could truly commit to being a runner (I finished 3 5K's and 1 5-mile run last year) but finds it hard to love running and even harder to find time (except super early in the am...and I am NOT a morning person) *who wonders how another little one will fit into our life someday (which we better work on since Caroline already tells everyone that she's having a sister!) *who constantly feels as though she's telling her kid to hurry up when I really need to learn how to slow down *that tries to find a good balance between actually living in the moment and taking pictures so I never forget this special memories *who plays the quiet game in the car sometimes since I just want to drive in silence after talking ALL day at work (I'm a speech language pathologist...) *that spends way too much on clothes and things for Caroline because she's just so much fun to buy things for *who struggles to remember who I used to be before I became a mom *who is so happy that we chose to move Caroline to a preschool at our church this year. I love hearing her talk about God and Jesus and asking to pray *that has a blog that I'm terrible at updating. Maybe I'll do better now that I have all this free time--just kidding! *who has loved reading the posts from other moms on McCall's blog and who treasures her other mommy friends. It's great knowing you're not alone out there and that someone else's child has also peed in the middle of the store, thrown a massive tantrum in the grocery store (the kind where you avoid all eye contact and ignore your screaming kid), colored with pen on something other than paper (such as their foot--solid black), had to be taken out of restaurant for a spanking/talking to....should I go on?? :-)