Baby Steps

I have a friend and she shares this little insight: She said after the birth of her second child someone in their church came up to them and said "Congratulations - welcome to parent hood." She says she really wondered what he meant by that because their first child was 3 years old. They had obviously experienced parent hood. She goes on to say that it only took her a couple of weeks to realize what that friend meant. Two kids rocks your world! Last month was my baby girl's first birthday, and just now we are coming out of the "we just had a baby" fog. Crazy huh? I mean she is one year old. We should be getting up in the morning, jumping into our neatly ironed clothes, sitting down to a warm breakfast, gathering up our things for the day (which of course were packed the night before) and loading up into our car which is of course up to date on oil changes, freshly washed, and free of cheerios or last week's newspaper. At least that is what I thought. Well, actually even before I had kids I never operated that way - but maybe I thought kids would make me be that way. After all - those are things adults do - aren't they? And I am now and adult - I mean - I am in my thirties, I have a husband, kids, a mortgage, a job, friends... sounds pretty adult to me. To that whole concept of life I say - HA! About the only part of my vision of my life that is true is we do "jump" into our clothes, but they are not neatly ironed - sometimes they are still in the clean laundry pile. But the jumping is usually done because we slept late - we do gather our things - which are NOT packed the night before - and we load up into our car that is covered in cheerios, last week's newspaper, plus a plethera of baby dolls, purses and sunglasses (courtesy of Cinderella - my diva) and is about 1000 miles over due for an oil change. And that - My friend - is on a good day! But everyday I get up, get dressed, get my kids dressed, get to work, get home, get them bathed, dinner cooked, get them to bed, and at least save time for a good night kiss for my husband, I call a great day! I survied another one. The funny thing is, I thrive on this Chaos. What would I do if I had it together? What would I panic over in the morning if I could find the perfect hairbow for my princesses or a matching pair of socks? What would I apologize for if people didn't have to move a diaper, a pair of ballet slippers, and a sippy cup with chunky milk out of the passenger seat of my car just so they can ride to lunch with me? And what would my mom sigh about if she came to my house and could see the floor of my laundry area? Life would just be empty - wouldn't it? So I will take one day at a time and little by little it will get easier, one day my prince and I will look around, the house will be in order, the yard will have been mowed recently, the kids will be playing peacefully, and we'll say to each other "Let's have another baby."