Mom Life Has Taught Me..

This morning my youngest son, Malik, woke up around 4:00am crying, tossing, and refusing to sleep. My first thought was this has to be gas, so I felt his stomach and listened for bowel sounds, but his stomach was soft and no audible sounds so I decided it most likely was not gas. Then, I realized that Malik is going through Leap #7 out of 10 right now and has been more fussy and been experiencing poor sleep. If you are a new or experienced mom and have never heard about leaps during infancy, I may be saving your life right now, just keep reading. Anyway, around 6:00am, I was still coaxing my baby and realized I was not going to get anymore sleep before work, so I decided to take a shower with him. Long and behold, as soon as we got in the shower, he was asleep- like snoring! I handed him off to his dad who dried and dressed him all without him waking up! When I got out of the shower he was sleeping peacefully, lucky him! This early morning situation gave me a lot of time to think and got me thinking of things I have learned being a mom… here’s five things I came up with:

1.  The Wonder Weeks App is the bomb. It wasn’t until I had my second child and a friend of mine, who just had her first child, introduced me to this app. Basically, your baby goes through different mental “leaps” as they grow and become more aware and these leaps may cause your child to become more fussy, obtain less sleep/ mess with their sleep patterns, or even cause poor appetite. So the app just helps me track my babies developmental changes, get insight to what is changing for them, and prepare me for possible different behavior. And let me tell you it is SO on point.. whenever I notice a change in Malik’s behavior (usually more fussing or harder to put to sleep), I check the app and a leap has started or is about to start. There is also a book available which goes more into detail about the different leaps, but the app works perfectly. Anyway, I highly recommend the app to all moms and future moms.
2. Awareness. No one points out all your bad habits quicker than your children. I’ve always heard the phrase, “kids are like sponges” but never appreciated it until I had children of my own. My oldest kid repeats parts of conversations, I could swear he was no where in earshot of and all of my kids pick up so many of mine and their dads habits, I don’t know whether to grimace or laugh sometimes. For instance, when I heard my two-year old exclaim “oh, sh*t!” when he dropped his bowl of grapes… I laughed …grimaced?! Or when my oldest son said, “You’re the only cursing, driving mom I know”. Ok, I did grimace at that one… Seriously working on my potty mouth y’all. I’m not a bad mom… I just curse a little. (Will be purchasing this shirt from Sweetees Apparel, one of my go-to sites for mom attire, they also have CUTE children attire!) My children have made me more aware of my decisions and actions. They really shine a light on areas that need self-improvement, but also on things that I do really well.
3. Patience. No one tests your patience more than your own kids. Kesi pre-children, had no patience; and I still don’t have loads of patience, but definitely more. I can listen to my kid’s same story multiple times a day and still act enthusiastic and find different questions to ask them about it. I repeat myself all day and I listen to my name get called 100 times a minute just for my kids to not even want anything and I don’t even flinch. Struggling with patience? Have a child, lol!
4. To pick my battles. Some times the kids eat dessert before dinner, some times we eat dinner in front of the TV, the kids don’t always clean their room when I ask, I can’t get everyone to be content and still enough to fold laundry. It’s okay for things not to go as planned as long as we are safe, happy, and together. I’ve realized that some times everyone’s peace is worth more than the fight.
5. Enjoy every moment. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Nights when I have to stay up all night with my fussy baby, I’m not going to lie, it can get frustrating, but I choose to enjoy holding him and kissing his head. One day my kids may be “too cool” for all my loving, so I have to remember to enjoy it all. “They grow up in a blink of the eye,” another quote I didn’t fully appreciate until I had kids. I blinked and I have a six-year-old, a two-year old, and my baby- he’s almost ONE. Don’t blink y’all.

Summer of Gratitude: Today I’m grateful that school starts on Monday, lol. Honestly, a little sad about this too! My “big baby” will be starting the 1st grade y’all, send prayers! Any other moms have children starting, or that have already started school? How are y’all doing?