A New Day

Yesterday was a really tough mothering day around here. Thankfully, even one day removed it doesn't seem as bad as it did last night when I finally crawled in to bed, but still. Ugh.

We all woke up grouchy. Caroline is back to waking up twice a night, and both kids were up earlier than normal so I was tired, and I couldn't get my Keurig to brew my iced coffee. I was hoping for a do-over by 8AM.

And, oh my word, Andrew has run head first into the back-talk sassy attitude phase and it totally caught me off guard.

I needed a warning or something. And an instruction manual.



And he's really so sweet and funny most of the time, so when he's not it's really hard on me.



I feel like surely I'm affecting this behavior - is he needing more attention? More freedom? More boundaries? More activities? More structure?

I have no idea!

I know I went to bed last night feeling like I'd totally failed as a mother that day.

But today was an all new day.

New attitudes, more grace, more patience.

And today we thrived.



He sat in his chair while we ate breakfast and dinner. When he asked for another cookie, and I said no, he said okay. Whoa. He was sweet and loving with his sister and his cousin.

He still had his moments, but his overall attitude was a million times better.

But so was mine.

I'm the grown-up here. I can't expect him to have a positive happy attitude if I'm grumbling and grouching all day.

Just my mood, the way I choose to face my day, has such a major impact on these two little ones who trust me with their whole hearts.

What an awesome responsibility this motherhood thing is.