Heart of a Momma

Before I was a mom:

I was a perfect parent. 

I knew how to discipline, how to get the best deals, how to seize the day and transform a 70 year old creaky house into a warm and inviting space. Children would fit neatly within my future life with perfectly timed naps and minimal sickness and I would fit neatly within my pre-pregnancy jeans directly after birth.

When I became a mother:

I was the humbled parent. 

I quickly learned that children take up approximately 4000% more physical space that their body. They also take up 5 times more mental energy than it takes to fly an airplane in a thunderstorm (I surmise). And if my emotional heart could hold, say, 2 cups of love, I learned that it could hold more. Way more. 

I also learned that the formulas I clutched religiously for parenting advice needed to be tailored to my strong-willed child. I fought against letting go of some organization and the perfectly clean house in favor of helping my daughter ride the all-important tricycle.

When I doubled my offspring:*

I learned that the heart heals even better than it grieves. 

That an entire day can be filled with chaos but the laughter of my children for 2.5 seconds will make it a different day entirely.

I learned that dragging my brood to get the best deal at every store in Chicago will quickly make my little friends into my little fiends. (That's no typo.)

I'm learning that Toys*R*Us has nothin' on our family: rubber gloves become dress up clothes, foil can make robots out of ordinary boxes and, well, I better hide the checkbook because it looks an awful lot like a coloring book.

I learned that when I'm entirely frustrated with a sassy lassy, I need only fold the laundry to see that the little baby socks will soon become the big girl socks. Patience will make the time more soft.

And when patience is overdrawn, sometimes the solution is a nap, a movie time or some snacks. For everyone. 

And last of all, when I scorn efficiency or multi-tasking in favor of some blue corn chips, I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only bone-weary momma who is doing so. Just a hunch.

*(Those of you with, like, 4 kids will laugh at my relative ease)