Celebrating the Small Victories

Baby D is getting so big!

Today was one of those days.  This morning at breakfast I told the girls that we had some errands to run today.  Now, this doesn't sound like your typical bribe, but apparently a trip to the store can be quite exciting if you are (almost) 4 years old.  The "be good or we won't get to go to the store" line works about 75% of the time, and that is most certainly a gamble I am willing to take!  After we ate, I gave my son his bottle, cleaned up the kitchen and attempted to straighten up the living room (the last one was clearly a waste of time, as I knew it would be, but sometimes my OCD wins.) 

I'm helping the girls get dressed and my baby boy gets restless.  To calm him down, I lay him in the pack and play with God's gift to mom's everywhere - his pacifier!  10 minutes later,the girls are dressed and ready to go...and my boy's asleep!  No problem, the girls can color and play dress up for a bit until he wakes up.  He's generally a cat-napper during the day, so I'm thinking 20-45 minutes max. then we're off.  Alas, my little QB had other plans - like a 4 hour nap!  During this time, the girls have decided that every disagreement must end in either a screaming or wresting match, or both.  (Not exactly where it came from, but they love to "play wrestle" - oftentimes in their princess dresses!  What could this possibly mean??) 

At 2:30pm I had to wake him up because I feared for my sleep tonight!  Finally at 3pm we're ready to go...except that 30 seconds after strapping the last kid into her carseat, a monsoon is unleashed outside our garage door.  Seriously?!?  I try to explain to the girls that we can't do errands today but they won't take no for an answer.  I do need to go to the bank and drop something at the post office - so drive thru only errands today!  Plus the 30 minutes of calm in the car would be good for everyone...and as all three kids snoozed during our brief outing I realized that, even with the craziness of the day's events, there were some exciting things to celebrate too!

First and foremost, Baby D, who just turned 6 mths last week, sat up for a full 5 minutes today!  Bouncing, laughing, turning his head and staying balanced the entire time!  (Isn't it funny how the tiniest little things become so exciting!?)  The girls, through all their arguing, were still super-helpful today and I did actually get a couple of my errands run - which I had already chalked up to a loss when I saw the rain start.  It's all about perspective, I guess, but I'm happy to celebrate the small victories every day!

The girls "helping" their baby doll.