Ostrich Days

Yesterday was a grumpy no good day in our home.

Matt only came home for dinner before going back up the lab until 1.
I was stuck with a frustrated, teething baby who found that she could hit.

She broke things. She ripped things. She screamed and threw several tantrums. I was exhausted by the noon.When Matt came home, he kept reassuring me that we don't need to have another one if this one is going to kill me. When he went back to work, I sat reading through different parenting tactics for a one year old. They didn't make me feel better. All of them were pretty discouraging. So I ate cookies and watched some really awesome movies instead.

This morning I woke up and it was raining outside. I mentally geared up for another awful day, but to my surprise, it went so much better. Madeleine was a cute sweet baby today. She even helped me organize the closets (she rocks at pulling stuff out) that were on my to-do list. She put herself down for her morning nap and despite skipping her 2nd nap, stayed happy all the way until dinner time. She even figured out how to stand on the kitchen stool and slurp noodles at dinner.

I'm finding that this mothering thing is weird. Some days are really awesome, and others makes me want to be an ostrich and stick my head in the ground. I starting to find that there is a balance in mothering. For every ostrich day, there is a moment that makes me glad that I chose to stay home and see it.

Here is one of today's moments that made up for yesterday.

She was playing with Baby Sophie in her room and was laughing like crazy. I grabbed my camera off the fridge to see what was going on. Madeleine would run and then fall on her bed laughing, with poor Baby Sophie flying through the air as Madeleine's grip would loosen. When I got in there she sat against the wall and made a few faces before going back to her game.

This little game lasted long enough for me to fix dinner. Amazing? You bet ya.