Put Differences Aside.

You might not be sure which avenue I’m about to take on this blog post. It’s much more simple than you may assume.

The other week we took a trip north for the weekend for our anniversary. We took our little guy and went to Splash Lagoon, an indoor water park.

I had been to this place years ago in college but this time was going to be different and more fun with our son. We had a hotel room that was in the building connected to the water park making it even more fun for us so we could come and go as we pleased and let him get a nap in during the day to enjoy it fully!

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What I have to mention though, as a parent and in general as a human being, is something I wish we could see more of.

Every child and every parent in the children’s pool got along, was kind to one another, and kept an eye on everyone as if each kid was their kid.

I wouldn’t say it was really busy but there were plenty of people and kids to see all kinds of interactions among one another.

A few small stories…

• A young boy that was older than my son came down one of the slides just as my son was walking in front of it. That boy stopped as fast as he could and as I said “thank you” to him, he smiled and told me, “don’t worry, I saw him!” That made my heart so happy that he has good parents teaching him to keep an eye out all around him.
• I helped my son walk up to and slide down one of the kids slides to my husband. As soon as I let his hand go I saw a mom below telling her son to be careful. I looked and here he’s walking across one of the roped off slides with water running on it and I reached out to help him so he wouldn’t slip. As I did this, she smiled and said thank you. We as parents can’t be everywhere, but we all have the same common goal to keep these kids safe.
• My son watched another boy his age sitting with his dad getting used to the water. While we sat with my son, he didn’t care about us, he kept smiling at the other little boy and splashing to get his attention in hopes he would play with him. He was a little scared yet, but to watch my son instinctively want to welcome another kid to the pool to play with makes you happy to see how easy it could be to become friends with someone you don’t know.
• A dad had helped his young daughter walk up the steps as we did to the double slide and he quickly ran back down to go to the bottom hoping she would go down and he could catch her. He saw me help my son down and asked me to help his daughter since I was still up there. We had never met or knew one another obviously. I quickly asked her if I could help her and she nodded. She almost hopped right into my lap but then wanted to cry when I tried to help her onto the slide. So, we began walking to the steps together to go down and her dad and I met up there. We both laughed knowing it’s not so scary, but he quickly said, “oh no, she’s going down today!” He went back up and helped push her down. Granted, I wouldn’t force a kid to do anything that I don’t know but to have the trust in another parent to help your child that you don’t know is also another thing we as parents hope for in one another.
• Any time kids would meet at the slides at the same time, you would see the older children always slow down and step back for the younger ones to go first. Whether they knew each other or not. I was so surprised to see how well children were acting in a totally new place, to most of them at least. The respect they had for one another was so nice to see. I know not every kid is perfect and patient, but that day really surprised me.
• One last one that stood out to me, as we kept going from one slide to another with my son in the kids’ section, you pass and bump into quite a few people. One of the moms standing and watching her kids felt my son bump her leg and she quickly reacted ready to catch a falling kid. She turned to me and said, “oh I’m so sorry!” Then we laughed because it was a true reaction to being a mom.

We mentioned it several times, my husband and myself, how nice it was to see kids getting along as well as parents! In the world we’re in right this moment, there is too much negativity. So many people not getting along because they do not agree on something. Yet we went to an entirely new place, with every age, race, and gender mixed together getting along. I didn’t know a single person other than my husband and son yet we laughed and smiled with so many parents and kids that day.

I’m absolutely sure we all have different opinions and views on life, but not one of those things stood in the way of a fun day with our family.

Remind yourself this during the trying time, be kind to one another. We’re on this earth to help everyone have a good day and live a great life.

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Slow down, Mama

As I write this, it is 9:22 pm. My son’s typical bed time is around 8 pm. I just put him down to sleep 10 minutes ago.

Our play room looks like this.

I didn’t get to the workout I had planned to do when I put him to bed. I didn’t pack our stuff for this weekend. I didn’t do the dishes. I didn’t do the 10 other things running through my mind.

What I did do is sat with my son and watched Despicable Me the whole way through and put my phone down to enjoy the slow down and relaxed with him.

The intention was to put it on before his bedtime to wind down a little but we both got sucked in.

I had to and am still reminding myself it is okay to slow down.

I’m not good at it. My anxiety is high and mind are racing knowing I put things off BUT I slowed down and truly relaxed with my little man.

We sat and forgot all those worries for a little. I even watched this nugget hop off my lap and show me his best dance moves with the last scenes. THAT made my night and the entire time slowing down truly worth it.

Forgive me for the super dark video. If you can make ot hus silhouette, it’s worth watching!

Remember, it is okay to slow down, mama. It will all be there tomorrow.

Secret Blessings

This week my Monday started quite rough. Truly, for the first time in a while, I was able to see each thing that was a shitty situation be a blessing to our family and I wasn’t as mad or irritated as I would have normally been in the past.

It took me having a child who is now 1 year old to realize that the things we struggle to see as a blessing can truly be just that.

Obviously, this is not the case in every single situation. I am human and can say “f*%k it” A LOT and push my laundry and dishes to the side a good bit.

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Let’s recap my Monday morning.

2:30 am – My son woke up screaming. He is cutting quite a few teeth so it could be the pain from that or maybe a night terror, not totally certain. What I was certain about was that he needed his mama to go in and hold him. He laid right against my chest and fell back to sleep in a few minutes while we rocked in the rocking chair in his room.

Blessing: My son rarely wakes and needs his mama to hold him much anymore. As tough as those long nights were as a newborn, I miss them. I soaked up this moment of holding him while he reached for my arm to be sure mama was holding him tight as he rested knowing I was there for him.

As I left his room quietly, I could smell something was off. Our dog was sneaking back into the room and I had turned the light on to look but saw nothing so I assumed it was me being totally out of it since it was the middle of the night.

7:00 am – Our carbon monoxide alarm began going off. My husband had just come to bed around 5:00 am because he was getting ready for a switch in shifts this week going back on night shift. He woke right up and I went through the house about to call 911 as I was opening all of the windows. He read that the 5 chirps meant it was an old unit and needed to be replaced. Thankfully, that’s all it was.

Blessing: We are in a safe home with the proper precautions in place to keep our family safe. This unit has been replaced as well.

As I was rushing through the house, I found the smell I thought I smelled a few hours ago. Our dog got sick and diarrhea was all over the living room floor. My extremely tired husband was already wiping it up while I was downstairs filling the bucket to scrub our floors.

Blessing: We have a dog that loves our child and us unconditionally and tries her hardest to keep us happy. By doing so, when she is sick, she always tries to go by the front door where we let her outside, though she knew it wasn’t right, she didn’t want to wake us that night (though I wish she did!) Also, my husband is a rock star jumping to help me figure out the alarm and with the clean-up that is clearly not anyone’s favorite thing to do.

7:45 am – My husband had gone back to bed to try to get more sleep. I was able to finally sit down before I had to login to my computer for work so I enjoyed a cup of coffee. While doing so, I hear the cat vomiting. This was the icing on the cake, some would say, for the morning.

Blessing: We have another pet that adores us that clearly felt left out and needed love too. Okay, that one I’m kidding a bit and had to add some humor into it because really it was testing my nerves at this point. It was a more of a “are you f*%king kidding me?” moment.

I was still able to sip my coffee before my son woke for the day since he had a busy weekend and longer night than he hoped.

The point is that it was back, to back, to back things that went wrong in the morning to start our week off. Yes, I was tired and the day ahead dragged a bit for me where I struggled to find the energy but that stuff does not happen every day.

It was a morning I had to turn my attention to what mattered and that was that we were all safe. Each of my kids, yes the fur ones count, were relying on mom and dad to take care of them and that is something I love to feel and make sure they feel it too.

We all have tough days and moments.

They look MUCH different to everyone in many different possible ways.

It is life and the reality we face as parents with the nights and moments but it is our choice in how we react to them. This teaches our children and they see how we react to things.

https://www.naturallife.com/

If it took having a child to help me find the positive in the bad situations, so be it. Again, I am no saint and a lot of the moments you’d assume I may get frustrated and mad, I probably do.

However, even if for one of the moments, we can find the good in it; maybe that is just the start for better days ahead much more often.

I hope you have a great day ahead of you!