I like to be real with our life. It's not all fun and games and adventures. Even the last week has been quite hellish between a minor fender bender (luckily nothing serious and it's all being taken care of easily, phew), too busy schedules, and Hubs getting sick leaving me to experience being the full time parent for 3 days. I've had to remind myself to breath A LOT.
Thankfully our Saturday was warm. Compared to earlier in the week when it felt like -50 degrees, 45 degrees felt like a heat wave. I was super excited to enjoy some time outdoors despite fog and light drizzle. That's never stopped us before. So, the minis and I headed to Grays Lake for our 2+ mile walk around the lake. I love getting shots of the Des Moines skyline in the background and was excited for some exceptionally good pictures of my three.
The minis had a different idea. They felt content in trying to kill themselves, or each other, or me, every step of the way.
Our adventure began at the van, when I asked them all to put their boots on and make sure their gloves were in their pockets just in case. We started on the trail and I realized the middle mini never changed his shoes and the oldest left his gloves in the van. Directly following this realization I had to yell "watch out for the dog poop! Don't step in it!" I also spent the next 45 minutes reminding the middle one to stay out of the snow because he failed to put his boots on.
All I really wanted was one nice picture of the three. This is what I got.
Me throughout this entire time:
"Do not hit your brother!" "Keep your hands to yourself!" "Don't push!" "Open your eyes please!" "Is anyone looking at me?" "Don't eat the snow!" I can only imagine what the other people on the trail thought of us....
The most special moments came when I saw my boys walking like this (pictures above and below). Harrison was seeing if he could walk like this (top) without tripping and Max was walking on the side on his boots just for funsies. I asked them if they were trying to break their own ankles or fall on their faces. They gave me the look (that look that says 'omg mom! How dumb are you?') and responded with "what are you even talking about?"
It was at this moment that I had that fear that parents get. That fear that screams 'how the hell are they supposed to be effective members of society someday??!!?'
The highlight of the walk (also known as when I really nearly lost all my shit on the oldest) was when I offered him a tissue and he said he didn't need it. I glanced at him only to see snot running down his face. I shoved a handful of tissues at him and said, "blow your nose NOW!" He did as I asked and then tried handing the very full tissue back to me AS WE PASSED A TRASH CAN.
"Here mom," he said nonchalantly.
My response: "Max, take a look at your surroundings. Now, next time I blow my nose I'm going to bring it to you. Ok?" He got the point rather quickly. *I make my sarcasm work for me parenting-wise.
Guys, this kind of stuff happens a lot. It's far from perfect.I feel like I spend a lot of every outing correcting my children's behaviors or slapping my forehead as I watch them, but I've got to admit, once time passes things like this become hilarious. As I look back on our many adventures I laugh about the imperfections of each. I'm not sure what I'll remember most about this particular afternoon in the future, but I do know that as happy as I was for our adventure to be done after 45 minutes, not a bit of me regrets having done it. All of it. Even the side boot walking. It just makes me really thankful for all of those things that could have happened that didn't.