It’s important to look back

It was a busy day.  The first day of Fall break.  I haven’t had all four boyz at home by myself on a weekday since school started.  When Carter first started school I missed him so much!  Today was, well, tough.  He jumped on his brother, stepped on his brother, climbed up his brother to get to the top of the slide, stole a train, took food from his brother… and the list goes on.  When I wasn’t reigning him in, I was wrestling Griffin whom, I keep saying, turned two right on schedule (two weeks ago!)  We attempted lunch at McDonalds with Papa Tom.  A total bust!  We should have just done the drive through because after Griffin threw his milk, his straw, and his cup he then refused to eat his chicken nuggets and screamed when Papa Tom ate them in front of him.  We ended up eating in the car.  Reasoning with a two year old doesn’t work for anyone who thinks it might. (Including Papa Tom) 🙂

The house was a wreck – so many shoes, hats, coats and toys thrown everywhere.  Dishes in the sink. Markers and the marks they leave behind all over my countertops. Requests for more white paper, “where’s the tape?” Can I tie his shoe? all while nursing a baby and trying to console and unconsolable two year old who only napped for the 10 minute drive home from McDonalds. At one point I dozed off for a few minutes while nursing Fletcher and woke up with a toy cockroach dangling by a string over my face.  It’s been a day!  But when I was at my wits end, I threw them all in the car and we went to the Tractor Park (only having to go back into the house once – when we started down the court and Kiefer says “I don’t have any shoes on!”)  I decided Fletcher would survive without a hat the second time I headed out of the driveway.  And he did.  

Once at the park they got some of their energy out.  We summitted Mount Tractor and once at the top they rolled down the other side.  The day was redeemed as we stood at the top and tried not to blow over.  The light was luscious and I snapped a ton of pictures.  Somehow when I’m having a bad day when I look at my children through the camera lens it helps focus my attention on what’s really important.  The last one I snapped of Griffin running after his brothers on the way to the car melted my heart.  He turned back to see if I was still following him and he smiled at me, his mama, while he was running.  “To earn the love of a child, that is to have achieved success in life.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson