The never ending...

When I first discovered I was going to be a mum several things crossed my mind. The main one being "why the crap am I not totally freaked out right now??" (I was 18 and had just peed on a stick in the shopping centre toilets because I was to impatient to wait till I got home). All I could think about for the following 8months was the tiny life growing inside of me. The tiny life that God had allowed my body to build. No amount of science or worldly knowledge could do what I was doing in that moment. I was growing an actual living breathing human being, whom would be mine to love forever. I was aware of the fact that this was going to be an incredibly hard and long journey.

What I didn't comprehend though was the amount of mess a baby makes once it stops being a baby and grows into an actual noisy, sweaty, adventurous child (also overlooked was that a baby grows into a child). Perhaps if I had been a little older and wiser I would have realized the importance of teaching Master N to wipe his hands when he finished eating, the correct way to tidy up his toys and not to touch the DVD's. But I didn't. I had hardly worked out for myself how to live without my own mumma cleaning up after me so it's no surprise I didn't work this out sooner.

Now I am slightly older and watching other friends join me on this great parenthood adventure. I can't help but feel a pang of regret when I see them teaching their children the things I didn't know to teach mine when I first started out. If I had taught them those things would days like today still happen?? Would I still have days when the boys are so wild and loud and excitable that they can't help but leave a giant trail of mess everywhere they look? My guess is yes. My guess is no matter the amount of training you do, a one year old is always going to be neater then a three year old. My guess is that (no matter your age) when you are crazy enough to have all three of your kids in three years your life is going to be messy. Very very messy.

But you know what? The 20seconds they spend being adorable somehow makes up for it. Somehow when they climb onto my lap all covered in kid sweat and snot and whisper in a teeny tiny voice how much they love me, I forget about the tear my hair out phone called I made to my best friend only seconds earlier and realize that no matter how bad it gets, I wouldn't change them for the world.