Time Machine

I've been wanting to write a post since first thing this morning but only just now found the time to sit down at the computer. I have a baby in a bouncy chair beside me, yelling at his Sophie while I rock him with my foot.

Stuart and I are going to raise our boys to stand up for what they believe in. I hope they both find things that they are deeply passionate about and don't let anyone convince them otherwise. I know it is inevitable that both boys will experience heartbreak. They will both have bad days where people tell them things they don't want to hear, they will have someone be mean to them because they don't agree with their opinion or belief. I hope that we can raise them to deal with these situations with grace, respect, and manners.

I was raised to stand up for what I believe in, and to believe in it fiercely. My parents taught my sister and I that material items are not as important as family and friends. We were both raised to be respectful of how others think and feel, whether we agree with it or not. We all raise our children with the example of how we were raised in our minds. There are lots of things my parents instilled in us that I would like to also teach my own children, and there are some things that I'm not going to.

There is a book I read a few years ago that I cried the whole way through but love so much. It's called The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. It's about a man who dies and meets 5 people that deeply influenced how his life turned out and made him who he is. There is a really special quote in the book that speaks so perfectly for how parents influence their children.

“All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.” 

I read this book before I became pregnant with Gage, and this quote has always stuck with me.

Yesterday I had a really bad day. By dinner I was ready to throw in the towel and just go to bed. One of the many reasons why I love being a mom is that no matter how bad of a day I seem to have, or how ill behaved my kids are, they can just say one little thing and I feel better instantly.

Stu gave Gage a bath and after he got PJ's on he ran to the stairs and yelled down "night night mommy, I love you! Going to sleep now, I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

It just warms my heart! He says "I love you" so randomly and it is so sweet. Today he was quiet for about 15 minutes while I was feeding Finn, so I yelled out "Gage, where are you and what are you doing?" only for him to announce "I'm sitting at the dining room table looking at the gingerbread house and pieces fell off, so I ate them.... and then more pieces kept falling off, so I ate them too!"

I had to laugh.

I hope when Gage and Finn are adults, they can go back and look at their childhoods with happy thoughts and fun stories.

Now back to my reality of snuggling a cranky little baby who is really unhappy with being rocked in a bouncy chair instead of his mama's arms!