Today I helped my oldest of three children pack his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backpack full of crayons, markers, and pencils for his kindergarten Open House that is coming up in a mere week and a half. Earlier today I was going over my youngest of three’s wardrobe, and figuring out what I will pack away in the pink plastic totes I bought because my four month old has already outgrown her three and six month clothes.
Everyone warned me about this; kids grow up. You have a baby boy swaddled in your arms at 3 a.m. and the next thing you know you’re packing his kindergarten things. I thought my daughter’s pregnancy would NEVER END (it was a doozy), but yet it did. My doctor always told me that all pregnancies eventually do end, but I had a hard time believing it with this go around.
Today she discovered that she has feet. One of my very favorite baby milestones.
It is these snapshots in time that are showing me just how much I want to slow down and enjoy what is now. That’s not always easy. Anyone with multiple children of single digit ages knows that the day to day life of a mama at this stage is exhausting. To say the least. Just the other day I thought I would do nothing but deal with poop ALL. DAY. LONG. I wanted the day to end. I think I said the word ‘no’ a gazillion times. And that doesn’t feel like an exaggeration, although I am sure I would tell my sixth grade English students that I could count that as a hyperbole in their writing.
I stumbled upon a very simple way for me to enjoy my kids as they are right now. In all their messy, demanding, glorious little kid-ness. One day I was so fed up with saying “NO!” that I just said “Yes!” (A side note: I still said no to things. I still didn’t allow the boys to pummel each other, jump off the furniture, or eat five packs of fruit snacks. Although saying yes to that last one might have earned me VIP mom status in their eyes.)
“Mom, can you play Uno again?”
“Yes I can.” (Needed to fold laundry and start lunch, but decided that could wait.)
“Mom, will you build us a fort?”
“Yes I can.” (Wanted to empty the dishwasher, but decided that could wait too.)
For a pair of brothers who have heard a whole lot of ‘no’ this summer, they just delighted in hearing a ‘yes’ that I don’t think they were expecting. It also made me a little sad when I saw their surprised faces at some of the ‘yes’ responses that they received. I think ‘no’ had become the norm. It was fun to say yes!
A few more observations about saying ‘yes’…
- It was way more fun to play Uno and build a fort than do chores.
- My boys were much better behaved when they got a chance to hear a ‘yes’ amongst the still numerous “NO!”s
- The hugs I got at the end of this day were a little bit longer and I think they squeezed just a little bit harder. Or maybe that was me holding on a little bit longer and squeezing just a bit harder…
So I sit here, with two weeks left of summer vacation, and I am hoping to get the chance to say a loud, resounding “Yes!” whenever I can. Believe it or not, my dishwasher did still get emptied, the laundry got folded, and we eventually ate lunch. Saying ‘yes’ when I could so easily have said ‘no’ or ‘sorry, not right now’ showed me that yes, right now, is in fact the time to play Uno and build forts. And read “Froggy Goes to Camp” for a third time in a row. And snuggle for just five more minutes before naptime.
One day that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backpack will be traded in for a trendy backpack. The tubs of clothes will be filled with even bigger sizes. I will hopefully look upon these changes and see all that I enjoyed before the next best thing came along.
Hug them, love them, breathe them in.
Enjoy them as they are now.
Say yes.
Howdy! This blog post could not be written much better!
Looking at this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He always kept talking about this. I’ll send this article
to him. Fairly certain he’ll have a good read. I appreciate you for sharing!