Tiny Human Prison Guards + Winter = Survival Mode

How have you been coping this winter?  It’s been so cold and the sidewalks have been terrible.  Sometimes (OK often) it feels like I am inside this beautiful prison (aka my home) and my adorable sons are my tiny human prison guards who keep me locked in.  Want to go out for dinner?  Baby is fussy all evening long.  Want to relax on the couch and watch TV?  If it isn’t a cartoon on the TV my other son yells “no – no people – no people.”  Want to get my hair cut that is atrociously long and disgusting?  How am I supposed to deal with that huge sheet draped over me while holding the baby?  Not to mention hair in the eyes.

So we ride it out.  I look a lot to the future… as in… I will never have to go through this again.  I will never again have to breastfeed while eating dinner. I will never again have to get pooped on.  I will never again have to cancel every single evening media and friend invite I receive.  Because this time will pass.  This is a long term view, I know, but it will.  One day we will eat as a family in a restaurant at a time past 6:00.  Maybe not in a year or two, but some day.  Some day I will not feel it is necessary to go to bed at 8:00 just so I can get a decent sleep.  Some day we will have family holidays which will be fun and not lessons in patience.

Humour gets us through a lot of this.  I basically just look at the situation and laugh and know that it will pass.  What seems so difficult and tiring now will one day  be a funny story.  Begging our son to poop on the potty?  Pretty damn frustrating now but in 15 years will be a good story.  Getting spit up on so often I stop changing my clothes and go around with big white marks?  Not so funny now, but probably will be in, again, 15 years.

I know a lot of people say enjoy them when they are young – they grow up so fast.  I say, do your best, survive and when they do grow up look back and remember the good times.