Woke up this morning to a sweet, but crying baby shaking a tamborine in my face, oblivious to the fact that his mother had a headache...that kind of headache that you unexplicably wake up with and then can't shake all day long.
The morning didn't get any better from there. Just to be clear, I am not a morning person. I'm trying to describe accurately just how not of a morning person I am, and I have to say that I'm an un-morning person. Anti-morning person? You choose.
The crabby pint sized tamborine player and I came downstairs to find a toilet brush sitting on the kitchen table and the holder for it in the on-deck circle. Funny how I didn't remember wiping the table down with the toilet brush the night before. And then comes that moment when, as a mother, you try to decide whether to find out which child got the toilet brush out, for what purpose, and have them identify EVERY SURFACE THEY MIGHT HAVE EVEN LOOKED AT WHILE HOLDING IT, or to quietly put it away and try not to remember the incident happening. Until you blog about it to the world, at least.
I went for the second option.
The morning proceeded as my preschooler had a serious of meltdowns for various significant reasons, including not being able to squeeze the toothpaste onto his toothbrush and the fact that his mother could not read his mind and just know, inherently, that he wanted Cornflakes for breakfast and certainly not Crispix.
Meanwhile, my daughter is playing a delightful game I'm sure she calls "Ask Mom 500 Random Questions about Things When Her Attention is Clearly Being Drawn Elsewhere Before She's Awake Enough to Even Think Of A Coherent Response." I do not exactly enjoy this game.
It had the makings of a bad day. I mean, a really bad day.
In the not so distant past, this kind of start to the day would have set me on a path of mommy crabbiness for the rest of the day. I just hate beggining the day in that kind of mess. I find myself though, having to make a cognizant choice to thank God for the bad days, and all that those kinds of days can teach me.
It's easy to be patient and kind to your children when they are well-behaved and considerate. But choosing to be patient and kind to my children regardless of their behavior? That can be challenging at times. In my life, I think the bad days teach me to be a better mother. Someone who can be a good example to their children of having a good attitude despite the circumstances, a mother who doesn't contribute to the problems presented by being angry and frusterated, but helps reason through them.
And it didn't magically turn into The Best Day Ever after I made this decision. There were still far too many meltdowns to be had by the preschooler man. And even during dinner, when we were discussing the best and worst parts of the day, I had to say that the highlight of my day was finding some really cute jammies for Gabe and leggings for Lily at the consignment shop.
But choosing to have a good attitude and make the best of the day despite the circumstances made me end the day with a content heart, and not feeling emotionally exhausted and just thankful it was bedtime.
And as I watched my daughter tickle the baby, and heard the precious baby belly laughs that followed, I confessed to Lily that I had to change my answer, because she had provided me with an even better highlight of my day.
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