The Facts of Life

My cousin says it best when she talks about her life with her multiples ... "The good, the bad, and the really, really sticky."

Most of our days with the boys are fun ... I can only count a handful of days that I would actually label "bad". But when they happen, I honestly question my sanity for days after.We had a bad day on Saturday. It should have been a good -- no, great -- day! We had tickets to go to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's Lollipop Concert. It's a special concert series just for young kids! This concert's theme was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and included an instrument petting zoo and pictures with the Reds Mascots before the concert.

Please note that there are no pictures of this outing posted here or on the 365 blog. Why? Because you can't hold a screaming toddler and take pictures at the same time. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd like to preserve these memories forever anyway.

First up, pictures with the mascots. Ahhhh, no. The boys didn't like the mascots.

I'm lying.

The boys HATED and were TERRIFIED of the mascots. I'm ashamed to say that they come by this fear of large furry creatures honestly ... I remember hiding behind my parents from Mickey Mouse at Disneyland when I was a kid.

Last Easter, we had to trick the boys into getting pictures with the Easter Bunny.And do I even need to mention Christmas pictures with Santa?Next up, instrument petting zoo. Awesome set up -- all the instruments from the symphony in the ballrooms of Music Hall available for the kids to touch and "play". Besides Noel beating on the xylophone and Tanner throwing a tambourine, this did not go over too well.

Lastly, the concert itself. We got through the Star Spangled Banner, and no sooner could the conductor say "Play Ball" did we have screaming boys. We left early and it was only a half hour long concert.

The day went further downhill from there. I'll spare you the gory details and give you some highlights:
1) Hayden throwing his snack plate, breaking it against the kitchen wall.
2) Tanner grabbing Dan's cordless power drill and throwing it down the stairs.
3) Noel taking off his diaper and peeing on the carpet in our master bedroom.
4) Me cutting my finger while trying to make grilled cheese squares through tears.

Dan and I are highly educated, smart, resourceful people, but we got beat DOWN on Saturday by a bunch of two year olds.

As we pondered where our parenting skills had failed us (and drank a nice bottle of wine), we realized that parenting is one of the hardest job ever, and the fact is that we don't own our children. Our job is the love them and teach with the knowledge that we have ... We can simply advise, support, guide, and provide a landing pad when they hit rough waters.

But the boys have to learn through struggles and fustrations ... A troublesome toddler is precisely what a "normal", healthy child should be like.

The boys learn as much about themselves and life on the bad days that they do on the good days.

And when you take the good, you take the bad ...