Christmas was amazing! We were able to spend it with family in Florida and the girls and I flew down so we wouldn't miss a minute of it. My sweet husband drove THIRTEEN hours to be with us (for only 48 hours) and then turned around and drove home so be at work the next week. Love him for that!
New Year's was fabulous too! Even though we missed our annual Family Party in our old Florida home (we invited our friends over that also had little ones and always had the best time together. Babies in pack in plays in every room in our house!), we did celebrate in style at a new MO friend's home with the kids playing in the basement and the adults just talking upstairs. Calm, quiet (well, except for the kids), and a perfect way to bring in a New year...new in more ways than one.
A few weeks after Christmas, I was in church and there was a visiting Pastor speaking that day. He spoke on leading and in his sermon there was one thing that just jumped out and smacked me in the face...figuratively speaking of course. My new church is not at all abusive!
He said that it would be such a shame if your life was one grand adventure in missing the point. I sat there for a second and really thought about that phrase. It would be sad if I walked through life and my eyes were not open to all that surrounds me. This small phrase has had me really looking hard at any situation to see the good in it...the point of it.
For example...my sweet Addie Grace, as you all know, loves a Tutu! She lovingly refers to it as a "pwincess." She goes grocery shopping in her pwincess, she picks Rae up from school in her pwincess, she even sleeps in her pwincess. But lately she has had an aversion to pooping in the freakin' potty. (Sorry, for the outburst, but as you can see...or read...this frustrates me to no end!!) I may be a mean Momma, but I decided that at 2 1/2, she needed incentive. Sooooo....I took away her pwincesses until she poops in the potty and then earns them back one by one. This worked for a week. She pooped, earned a fabulous little pink Fairy number back, and we were off to conquer the next poop-tastic adventure.
A few evenings later, all was quiet in the Sheffield household. Craig and I were talking on the couch and little girls were tucked neatly in their beds drifting off to dreamland...or so we thought. Addison had tactfully snuck out of her bed, out of her room, and into her playroom so she could quietly POOP in her pull-up. What the heck!? Her pwincess was once again taken away and we were back at square one again. A week or so later, we spent the day with friends at the Science Center and then came back to their house for dinner. The adults were upstairs talking in the Living room and the kids were downstairs playing in the basement. Addie Grace clumsily waltzes up the stairs with nothing but her pink Hello Kitty underwear on. Oh dear! I said, "What are you doing, Monkey!?"...as I quickly jumped up from my chair hoping no one noticed that she was practically naked! Fat chance, by the way! She said, "Mommy Sheffield (swinging her head side to side), I yooking fawr a pwincess!" I said to her that no she couldn't wear one because she needed to poop on the potty first. She fake cried for a while and then I helped her get her clothes on. About 20 minutes later she comes walking back up the stairs with a pink halter top pwincess dress on that was about 2 sizes too big for her. The neckline hit her mid chest and her tiny boobies were showing! Of course I practically fell out of my chair scrambling to get to her so I could tie the dress up, because there was no way I was getting that thing off of her. Now, I know good parenting books say that consistency is the best and...yes, I earned a parenting dunce cap by letting her just stay in the dress. With Addie Grace though you sometimes need to weigh the cost of embarrassment. Even Rae's little face read, "Please, mom! Help me! Addie is going to do something nuts!"
That is the thing about Addie...she doesn't look for trouble, she is just curious. Like the time she climbed IN the fridge to get some grapes and I closed the door on her. The kid shivered for an hour...I am totally kidding! She only shivered a minute or two.
Anyway, at the risk of missing the point of this whole fun poop-fabulous adventure I tried to take a step back and look at the bigger, less stinky picture. Addie Grace is a girl that knows what she wants. Plain and simple. This will probably cause friction (to say the least!) between her and I when she is older, but for now...even with my parenting dunce cap in this situation, I am proud of her for that. Since then, I have caught her locked in her room or her playroom trying on smuggled pwincesses and there has been no poop revelation about the potty. But, you know what? She fights hard for what she wants and what she believes in...that is my girl.
Mommas, with every moment their comes a lesson learned...the point if you will. Wouldn't it be a shame if our lives as parents were a grand adventure in missing it? I recently read a quote that said something along the lines of, don't work so hard for a life that you forget to have one. Find the point in whatever adventure it is that you are experiencing right now...even if the best way to find it is tongue in cheek or your very own Laughable Moment. Feels good to be back!
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