Today we are parents

If you're a parent then you know that raising children isn't always the easiest thing.  You want them to go here and they want to go there.  You want them to keep their food in their bowl and they want to put it on their head.  You want them to sleep through the night and they want wake up at 3 in the morning and scream at the top of their little lungs (not in distress might I add, simply because they want to yell).  Parenting is a new experience that no one can prepare for.  M and I are constantly being asked how our parenting is "going".  I'm not quite sure how to answer this question.  On the one hand I can simply lie and say that raising children, or child since we only have one, is the bee's knees.  She is the most amazing little girl who minds her mommy and daddy and never puts her food on her head.  I can tell them how she listens to everything that we tell her to do and goes to bed at the appointed hour every night.  She makes it so easy to be a parent.  I can say all of this but it would be a lie.  On the other hand, I can tell them that usually by the end of the night I wish I had a stiff drink to calm my nerves.  All day we're running around trying to keep P from chewing wires (yes our daughter chews wires), knocking over the TV, climbing the stairs, eating loose change that happens to find itself on our floor, etc.  She's a handful, a stress, and sometimes a little beast trapped in a 13 month old's body. 

Parenting is hard work.  From the moment you change their first diaper and you get poop all over your hand because you've never change a diaper before, to the moment they start walking and knock over the Christmas tree because, even though they can walk, they are still shaky on their feet and fall at a moments notice,  you want to give them the best that you can.  You look into their little eyes and you imagine for them a future that's bigger than anything you could have ever dreamed up for yourself.  You have a love for them that far surpasses anything you've ever experienced before in your life.  You'd do anything for them, and until they can feed themselves you literally have do to do everything for them.

Parenting doesn't always go the best for M and I.  There are times when we have to sit back and reevaluate what we're doing so we can help P understand something better. But we would never in our wildest dreams change anything.  It's a stress that has instant rewards the moment your child looks at you and calls you daddy or mommy.  They're a gift that comes with annoying questions like "why" and answers like "no".  They never hold anything back like adults do and are sure to tell you they don't like something when they smack you in the stomach.  When they laugh everyone laughs and when they say "hi" everyone wants to be their friend.

-Jeremy-