Parenting Favorites

I recently wrote on Facebook about one of my favorite parts of parenting. So much of parenting is expected to be either miserable or magical. On one end of the spectrum, you have people who suffer through it, making themselves a martyr to their kids and the responsibility they feel in raising them or, being so self involved with their life, ignoring their kids as a burden and obligation. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people who either think that every moment of their child's life is perfectly engineered by rainbow unicorns or feel the pressure from outside sources that it should be. 

Fortunately, Matt and I have settled somewhere in between, finding some of our favorite moments and parts of being a parent in all sorts of mundane and normal things. 

A brief list-

Hearing Matt holler, "Come here! You have to see this." Only to find him chuckling to himself as quietly as possible as he laughs at the way the kids finall fell asleep. The night that spurred this post, Keegan had fallen asleep at a 90 degree angle to her sister, folded in half with her legs on top of the pillow, head firmly planted against MacKenzie's bum. We frequently get our after hour laughs in this way. 

Matt does bedtime with the girls and I love that for starters. It means intense and focused bonding for them and it helps them spend extra time with a daddy that works very hard for them. I also love that, on most nights, I have to shout up to him that it's late and he needs to wrap it up. He spends such quality time with them, listening to them, singing with them, and telling them stories, that the time gets away. 

Whispering "secrets" with the girls and hearing them whisper them back. I started this with Mac recently, telling her she was beautiful or smart or how much I loved her. It surprised me when she immediately began doing the same thing back to me and giving me special secrets too. Keegan has since picked up on the fun. 

First, making them delicious and semi nutritious meals that they enjoy. And second, hearing them say thank you for making the meal, even when it isn't necessarily their favorite meal. As parents, we work so hard to practice and repeat manners and kind words, it feels good when all of that repetition pays off and they start saying things on their own accord. 

Having two little girls who love dress up so much that glitter is literally everywhere in the house. Matt's mom was contemplating buying the girls shoes that have glitter on them but didn't know how we felt about that. I told her that we wouldn't notice the glitter on top of glitter so she was welcome to! 

A little boy and his obsession with dirt. I can't keep him away from it. If he sees an open door, he furiously makes his way towards it, grunting all the while, and trying to scootch out into the wild. He will scrub in the dirt as much as possible shoving it in his mouth with fervor. The girls hated even being in the grass until they could stand so this obsession is very new to me!

There are thousands more reasons that make parenting so rewarding, but these have touched my heart recently. I am so priviledged to be mom to these three.