The Toddler Life

Grocery shopping with two toddlers is becoming increasingly more difficult. There was one night when Luke and I took them out to grab some groceries, and even with both of us there, we knew we were going to have to throw that plan out the window. I took the kids out to play in the van while he quickly finished and checked out. When one of us takes just one child, it always seems to go so much more smoothly. But when both littles are there, one or both want to be out of the cart, or both want to be carried, or they cry when they want something and we say no. The other day, I ran out to Walmart to pick up a few things for our MOPS play date, and I one point I turned around to Jonah carrying a giant box of goldfish. And then in the produce section, I heard a Walmart employee say "Oh, you must like tomatoes"- and there's Jonah, putting his mouth all over a tomato. Needless to say, that tomato is now sitting my fridge waiting to be used.

I most definitely do not have this motherhood thing down, but in talking with most of my mama friends, none of us really do. I know I'm learning as I go, and I feel like I could always be doing better. One thing that I seem to forget over and over again is that I have to learn to let my plans go sometimes. I try to make sure I do fun things with the kids, but sometimes, those fun things just turn into not fun for anyone things.

For example, one of the activities on Christmas countdown (that was pulled from Pinterest) was to make a cranberry and popcorn garland. I didn't have cranberries on hand, so decided we would just make it a popcorn strand. Easy enough, right? The plan was to do it during Jonah's nap time, Noelle could hand me pieces of popcorn while she ate the rest, and I would string them onto the thread. We could talk about what she learned in school or about her friends or whatever she wanted to talk about. Fun for both of us, right? Nope- she kept getting the thread tangled in the strand of popcorn I was stringing, the popcorn kept breaking, she lost interest after about 2.5 minutes, and then Jonah woke up and only wanted to be held. So everything got put in the trash. Oh life with toddlers.

BUT I am so thankful that I get to do this motherhood gig, and that these two littles are ours to raise!