Serenity Now!

Sorry it is been so long since I have blogged.  I miss it dearly and hope to begin anew when we settle in Kansas.  The moments to myself are currently few and far between.  For instance, I am currently sitting in a minivan writing this post on my I phone with a tyrant, I mean toddler in the backseat. I just couldn't let this moment go by without chronicling for posterity.
 My family and in laws are currently  inside Cheddar's enjoying a lovely dessert in honor of Joann's birthday. Leah did everything she could think of to make this occasion miserable.  After consuming her weight in chips and salsa, she was ready to leave.  Unfortunately, the main course had not even arrived.  Chris and I walked said toddler three times around the establishment, looked at fish in the aquarium, and brought our "bag of tricks" to occupy Napoleon, I mean Leah. No one wants to eat next to a screaming one year old.  So I bit the bullet and took her out to let everyone else enjoy their meals.  I would rather have dinner next to a hungry crocodile. Has anyone else dealt with this? The terrible twos have moved on in. I remember this with Sarah but of course it seems worse now than in our sanitized memories. Let me give you a rundown of a week with little Napoleon.
On Tuesday, we made our way down to the local library for Sarah's story time. Leah loves the library. She thinks she owns it. There is a toy that she literally drags all over the children's section to keep anyone else from playing with it. There is a section that she likes to climb. She saw another kid climbing in her section and literally jerked her down. After a beating (yes they have begun), she heads back to the same girl with a different tactic. She pats her on the shoulder and said "uh oh" over and over. As if the "people's eyebrow was coming next. What am I going to do with this one?

On Thursday I kept Leah out for about forty five minutes too long and was punished by a screaming Child who Refused to nap, slammed her finger in a door and threw up all over me, her, and my (currently for sale) floor.  Serenity now! 

She also conquered the Chik Fil A playground this week.  She made it to the top and looked like she had just conquered Mount Everest.  After a few times up and down, it was time to go.  Then the short one threw the spaghetti- legged scream fit that we have all seen when we are out.  As young people, we are annoyed that those terrible parents can't seem to train their child better.  As parents, we all sympathize because we know the embarrassment they are feeling at that moment.  What a fraternity in which we belong!
I know that someday I will look back on this and laugh. I know that there will be a time in which I have more time on my hands than I ever wanted and will look wistfully back at these days.  I am simply writing this so that when my teenage daughter comes to me telling me that I don't love her (I hope this never happens, but I am a realist)... I can pull out the old blog book and let her read just how much we put up with when she was a wee one.  Yet through it all, I would give my life for either one of my little ones.  Isn't that crazy?  Imagine how much more God puts up with and yet He still loves us all as well.  I think this phase is just a taste of that for us to better understand His deep, abiding, and unconditional love.
Until next time (when I will still be exhausted yet fighting the good fight),
Angie