I forgot....

But I quickly remembered!

I forgot how hard it is to have a toddler!

Today I kept a friend's two year old and four year old. It's only been 3 years since I've had a two year old, but I swear I forgot how exhausting it was! At one point, not only did I have a two year old, but I also had a newborn, a three year old, and a four year old. And apparently I lived to tell about it.

I only kept these two children today for about 5 hours, but it felt like 5 years. One thing that made it so exhausting was that my house is no-longer childproof. There's no gate at the top of the stairs, no gate at the bottom of the stairs. Small choking hazards like Barbie shoes and beads litter my floor. No outlet covers, no doorknob locks, etc. Everytime I turned around, I was losing it because I'd have a vision of this little one falling down my stairs, shocking himself while trying to plug in the radio, or slamming his finger in the door.

I was so thankful that he was still in one piece when his dad picked him up.

Although he was a mess. I forgot about a bib. Two year olds with ketchup don't do so well without a bib. And I forgot to change his wet diaper. His outfit unsnapped on its own because his diaper was so swollen. His poor dad changed his diaper as soon as he walked in the door, right there on the rug in my foyer. Oops.

And I forgot to put his cookies on his plate after he finished his lunch.

And ...I didn't have high chair or even a booster seat. So I used a pot and pushed the pot up against our mudroom bench that has all the dirty shoes in it. He didn't seem to mind. HE ate his cookie and his ketchup and life was good.

I don't know how in the world I ever got anything done when I had four really little ones. I don't know how I even knew my name. If you remember from an earlier post, I didn't even remember my husband's name!

So to all you moms out there who are in the thick of it...there is hope. You will survive.

Thanking God for those precious days and for these days, as well. Time flies. Help me to slow down and enjoy it.