Parenting Is Not Glamorous!

It's been a trying week here. I have a new respect for single parents. Doing everything is no fun at all. It's nice to have a spouse to come home after work and take over the parenting for a few minutes so you can go hide in the closet and cry to release the stress of the day. I am counting the minutes until my husband gets home on Saturday. I haven't decided whether I will kiss him first or hand my daughter to him and run the other way singing "nah, nah, nah-nah-nah."

Really, my daughter is an angel. I don't give her enough credit for how well-behaved she really is. However, after being the only sounding board for a 2 1/2 year-old whine fest this afternoon, I'm ready to start rocking back and forth, eat my hair and try to find my happy place! Being a parent is not glamorous, but it is worth it.

We started our morning with Avari standing next to my bed with her pants down around her ankles. You see, she's figured out how to pull them down to go potty, but she hasn't quite gotten the wiping and pulling them up yet. I cleaned her up and gave her a bowl of cheerios for breakfast, her standard fare.

Then I proceeded to get ready for my doctor's appointment. We had a row over why she could not go with me to the doctor. How do you explain to a 2 1/2 year old that an OB/GYN visit is no place for a toddler? She then decided Mommy should just stay home and play with her and became inconsolable when I explained that was out of the question. We talked over the fact that she would get to go play at her Grammy and PawPaw's house. That seemed to smooth things over a bit.

She had another meltdown when I was combing her hair. I think it had something to do with the fact that I had to spray some detangler on her hair to get the comb through it. Then she was mad that her shirt was wet because she pulled the towel off her hair before I could get it dried off a little.

When we finally left the house at 9 am, I was almost looking forward to the OB/GYN! We made it to my in-laws' house; I coerced a kiss and hug from my darling progeny and managed to extricate myself with no further drama.

I made it to the doctor on the other side of downtown Houston and back in 2 hours, which has to be some sort of record. While I was there, he asked me if my husband and I were thinking more seriously about having another child (if you haven't been here before, it took quite a bit of medical intervention and a miracle from God to get our daughter). After this morning, my first thought was "Are you crazy?" No really, that isn't what I thought. Well, maybe, if I'm being honest, I thought it for a split second. But I explained that we were going to allow God to do whatever He wants in our lives, and if that includes another child, we'll leave that up to Him.

I made a quick stop at the bank to deposit a check where I was berated by the teller at the drive-thru. I had forgotten to list my account number and also forgot to sign my check. She apparently took it as a personal slight and drew great offense from my oversight. I thought to myself that after this morning she was lucky I had remembered the check at all, and I quickly signed it and sent it back to her.

I arrived back at my in-laws' at about 11:30 am. I had a nice few minute visit with my mother-in-law who I think should be made a saint after raising 3 boys (especially my husband who was a particularly difficult child). We drank a soda (I hadn't had a bite to eat or anything to drink all morning. I can thank blood work for that little gift) and discussed life in general.

We made it out to the car where my independent child decided she needed to climb in our SUV and her car seat with no help. That normally adds a good 5-10 minutes onto the loading time. I got her buckled in and climbed in the front seat. By the time we were backing out of their driveway she was asking me for her favorite CD, which I had managed to leave at home. She grumbled about that for a few minutes until she found something more interesting to do.

We made it home, and I prepared to put my angel down for her nap thinking, "I am going to have one glorious hour of peace and quiet in which to iron clothes!" I know, sounds like paradise, right? Who needs a 5 star spa when you can get a steam bath hovering over an ironing board trying to get the wrinkles out of teeny-tiny, frilly, little girl clothes? Seriously, have you ever tried to get all those ruffles wrinkle-free?

About the time I settled down to my first sustenance of the day (a bowl of raisin bran - I was too tired to make a sandwich), I heard the whine machine commence. I left my "meal" to find out what was causing the bee in my daughter's bonnet. She was contorted into a pretzel shape saying something about "it hurts." My response: "What hurts?" Her answer: "Scratch it here." As I looked to where she pointed, I saw that she was trying to scratch her derriere, but since she had on denim shorts, she couldn't get to the itch.

I proceeded to scratch her cheek and said, "Now please go to sleep." Before I could get out the door, she was crying, "Scratch your bottom." My response: "I did scratch your bottom." Her reply: "No, this part of your bottom." She wanted me to scratch the other side as well. I obliged because frankly all I could think about was that my raisin bran was getting soggy in the other room.

I sat down, picked up my spoon, had a bite of cereal halfway to my mouth and heard a door open over the monitor. I walked out and saw that the door to the study was open. I walked in to find Avari upset because her shoes had not been put up in her closet - perish the thought. I put the shoes up, tucked her back into bed and returned to my soggy cereal.

My beautiful daughter did sleep long enough for me to finish the ironing. She woke up asking for a snack, which she happily finished a few minutes ago. However, in the course of writing this post I have had to locate a lost purse, retrieve books for her to read on the potty, clean the potty, give her a cookie for going potty, and put on the aforementioned CD that she had requested earlier in the day.

So, I say again that parenting is not glamorous. However, when she looks at me and says, "Mama read you a book," and she snuggles up in my arms to read about The Lorax, The Cat in the Hat or Larry Boy's latest adventures, it is all worth it. The smile she gets on her face when I do different voices for each animal character in The Fly Went By, makes me long to do it all over again. The kiss and tight squeeze around my neck are worth so much more than money could ever buy. When I hear her sing "Amazing Grace" with me before bed at night and then she looks up at me with the sweetest grin and says, "You sing so beautiful" (referring to herself, of course), I know that I am the most blessed woman in the world.

Bring on the ironing, the itchy bottom, and all the hugs that go along with this gig. No matter how harried I may get, this is the best job in the world!