Oh Parenting.

These three cute kids are perfect.  They really are.  Except when they aren't.  Even then they are still perfect.  Doesn't make much sense, does it?

Parenting is difficult.  One moment Michael is finishing a 60 piece puzzle by himself, Elli is counting to 10, and Ethan is laughing.  The next Michael is screaming while throwing train pieces, Elli is biting everyone in sight, and Ethan is spitting up sweet potato on the carpet for the 50th time.  There are days where I could say parenting is easy.  Then the next, parenting is a pain in the butt.  Let's be honest though, most days I go between those two extremes at least a hundred times.  Right at this moment I'm thinking this is easy, only because all three are napping.  Ten minutes ago I was telling yelling at Michael to go potty, I was forcing Elli to go to time-out because she was jumping on a puzzle, and I was forcefully ripping my hair out of Ethan's hands as he screamed.

For a while it was hard to not give in to these moments and have a mini-breakdown.  Lately I just go with it.  I have to keep telling myself that even if they are horrible all day they will all be smiling as I read them a story right before bed.  That moment every night where everything is perfect is what I look forward to all day.  I keep that perfect image in my head.  When we do have a few perfect moments throughout the day it's like Christmas came early.  The rest of the time - when everything is crazy - I just hold on to that perfect image and somehow these cute little monsters are still perfect, they are just learning.