Free at last!

This morning, I awoke to two wonderful sounds. First was the sound of the snow plow finally going by! I almost cried with happiness. Coincidentally it went by exactly when I usually wake up, so I am quite grateful to be freed from my snowy prison AND allowed to sleep in untill my normal waking time. I don't take kindly to being awakened by anyone but my children because nobody but my children can possibly need me badly enough to warrant curtailing my precious sleep.

The second wonderful sound was Emily's voice announcing that her bed was dry this morning! The poor girl has been potty trained since August, but I always still put a diaper on her at night. I did this for two reasons. First, because I was too exhausted what with gestating and now with feeding a new baby through the night to even consider having to deal with an accident at 3AM. Second, because Emily's diaper weighs about 5 pounds when she wakes up in the morning and considering how deeply she sleeps I just didn't think she'd be able to hold it or wake up enough to get that much pee out without a diaper on! Will has been lobbying for us to give her a chance for awhile, so last night we finally did and she made it on the first try! Now if only she could learn how to get a reasonable amount of toilet paper by herself without unraveling the whole roll she'd be 100% self-sufficient in the potty department.

So I don't think I'll venture out quite yet, but it makes me feel lighter just knowing I'm not trapped anymore. 7 days is a long time to have to entertain a 2 year old without the benefit of playgrounds or libraries or Little Gym.

Reading all my childless friends' facebook updates this week has made me somewhat jealous. It would've been quite nice to just curl up on the couch with Will and a cup of tea and catch up on our TV shows while it snowed (although without kids we wouldn't have been nearly as far behind on our TV shows in the first place). Instead I was charging back and forth between a screaming hungry baby and a bored tantruming 2 year old (who referred to her sister yesterday as a "stupid old baby" and tried to drag her across the floor by the foot of her PJs), wracking my brain for fun stuff to do and desperately trying to convince Emily that we don't need to watch Home on the Range again. That's where she learned the word stupid in the first place :-( But parts of this week were fun, and I am actually quite glad that we even had Home on the Range as an option, because lots of people were without power this whole week. I can't imagine having to go through a blizzard without being able to bake, do laundry, watch TV or even stay in my house. I can't imagine the frustration and annoyance of having to pack my whole family into a car that can't handle driving in 10" of snow and trying to find a hotel that'll accept two 45 pound dogs, one of whom just discovered that he loves eating poop. Dealing with THAT has been horrifying enough while snug and warm in our own house.

So I've decided I need to make a list of things I'll miss about having little kids, and things I WON'T miss about having little kids. I'll keep the first list posted in a place I see it and add to it often, and the other list I'll save to reference in the future when I am looking back with nostalgia on these days.

THINGS I WILL MISS

-Hugs and snuggles pretty much whenever I want
-Hearing "I love you mommy" often
-The hilarious things that kids think about and say
-Not having to "learn to let go" yet, I can keep them with me and safe at all times
-Fuzzy baby heads...have I mentioned that I love baby heads?
-Their butts. Baby and toddler butts are adorable
-The rest of them too
-Having someone around who is so sweet, so innocent, and so impressed with the simplest things
-Watching them grow and feeling so proud when they master new concepts and tasks
-Having people in this world who think I know everything
-Being able to act like a dork without judgment
-Kissing boo boos and being able to make it all better
-Feeling so needed all of the time


THINGS I WILL NOT MISS

-Feeling so needed all of the time
-Having to deal with human waste every day
-LACK OF SLEEP!
-Having to adhere perfectly to a 30-minute long carefully choreographed bedtime routine or else suffer the wrath of a 2 year old
-Brushing teeth, wiping butts, washing hair, wiping noses
-Tantrums, especially when there are multiple tantrum events in one day
-The huge messes
-Having to pack up the whole house before I go anywhere, and having to buckle them into carseats. SUCH A PAIN
-Having to prioritize my free time to the point where getting a pedicure (or sometimes even a shower) is pretty much out of the question
-Having to drive a "family" car (I miss my little Audi!)

I had to make the first list longer than the second so that I look like a good mom. Which I HOPE I am, and if I took a week and made these lists exhaustive, I have no doubt the first would be way longer than the second. Motherhood does feel like a pretty thankless job sometimes, but even if I have a day when the second list feels longer than the first, I love my kids like crazy, and that makes up for any perceived imbalance.