Being a parent...

....means the wins are few and short lived.

I don't mean for that to sound like parenting is horrible.  It is the exact opposite, but the statement is still true.

A few weeks ago we went to the grocery store and discovered Michael was picking grapes out of the package we hadn't paid for yet.  When we took them away he had a complete melt down in front of everyone.  That was a fail for us.

I took Michael to the zoo alone last week and let him walk around while I had Elli in the stroller.  For those of you that know the zoo you will laugh when I tell you we only made it to the elephants.  He wanted to do his own thing, climb on everything imaginable, and stare at the baby elephant for half an hour.  He didn't respond to me asking him nicely to stop climbing on the benches, he didn't respond to my threats when he was climbing up fences, and he didn't follow me when I walked away hoping he would come after me.  That was a big fail for me.  I became the mad mother at the zoo instead of the one who gently controls her kids, and encourages them to do things by positive reinforcement.

Then there's the fact that Elli is 8 months old and still doesn't sleep through the night.  Yup, big fail right there.  Of course, there are other factors involved in that, but still a fail.

Then yesterday happened.  Something just went right yesterday.  We went to lunch with Josh and the kids were happy, well mostly.  Josh had a class so he stopped home and we all headed up to campus.  I dropped him off and I took the kids to the zoo.  Michael walked the whole time and Elli was in the stroller, and both kids were completely content.  Michael loved it.  Elli was happy and smiling.  Everything was great.

Even though there are a lot of fails, I still find try to find the joy (or the humor) in them.  No, it wasn't great for Michael to be yelling at the grocery store, but I couldn't stop laughing when I noticed him sneaking grapes.  The zoo was painfully boring when he stared at the elephants for half an hour and tried to climb in with them, but it was adorable to hear him call them puppies every 20 seconds.  I don't love the fact that Elli still wakes up at night, but I do love holding her in my arms when she falls back to sleep.

Parenting is full of mistakes, fails, headaches, embarrassment, shock, and diapers.  It is also full of love, laughter, joy, and to make you feel like you can really do it, occasionally a win.