So naturally, after my last post on being committed to parenting with all the good times and bad, I had a doozy of an afternoon. Randy was out of town so I was "single parenting it" and, side bar, let me just say I have MAD RESPECT for moms and dad flying solo. You guys deserve major awards. And by major awards, I mean like a million dollars, a brand new Lexus and a month long vacation to Hawaii.
I digress. Back to my little sob story.
My work ran late and I was stressing about how long I could wait for a return phone call (that never came) and still make it to daycare on time to pick up Emily. I finally bailed around 5:30 and was happy to see that Emily was still playing with several of her little classmates. Because ya know, as much money as you pay and as much fun as they have you always feel a little guilty when they are the last one there.
Then things started to unravel a bit. Emily did not want to leave. Let me back up, she basically ignored me when I walked in. She used to scream, and I do mean SCREAM, with excitement when I walked in at the end of the day. She would run as fast as her little legs could carry her over to me with arms out to pick her up. Melt. my. heart. I'm not sure if we are past that or this is just a little stage. She did, however, proceed to give her favorite teacher (who I do adore) not one but TWO hugs. STAB ME IN THE HEART. Seriously?! Working mom guilt times times a hundred thousand million gazillion.
After a mini tantrum from Emily when I finally grabbed her and wrestled her coat on, I proceeded to find out that she BIT two girls in her class that day. Sadly, this is not new information to me. And I know that this is pretty standard toddler behavior as Emily has been bitten herself. The frustrating part is getting it to stop. She bit me on our first day home together over the holidays (there was amoment I wasn't sure the two of us were going to make it through 9 whole days together) and I put her in timeout, which actually worked, I think? Luckily, daycare put her in timeout as well so I'm hoping (PRAYING) that a little consistency will pay off. Talk about bad times.
Overwhelmed, tired, a little emotional, and unsure of how I was going to tackle this new parenting challenge, I managed to make it out of daycare and safely home. We had a decent and healthy dinner, a fun time reading books, I got lots of hugs after putting on Emily's pjs, and we made it to bed on time. All of this without tears (from either one of us). Talk about good times.
So, see? Good and bad. All rolled up into less than . 24 hours.
I easily could end my post right here. But I had two things happen this morning that reminded me, good or bad parenting stuff, I was taken care of whether I knew it or not.
After scouring my house for my car keys I finally found them still in the door. Yes, OUTSIDE my locked house. I had a moment of panic at the thought that someone could have easily gotten into my house overnight immediately followed by what I like to call a "God moment". In my mind I literally heard the words "I've got you, Megan." Whew, God was looking out for me.
Still amazed by God's protection (unknown to me), Emily and I began our commute to daycare and work. This morning was yucky with lots of rain and of course lots of traffic. We came up on a spot on the interstate that is notorious for congestion. Most mornings everyone goes from 60+mph to a crawling 20 mph in less than half a mile. As I was coming to an almost complete stop, I for some reason looked in the rear view mirror to a car narrowly miss rear ending the car DIRECTLY BEHIND ME and swerve in the median until finally regaining control back onto the highway. I tear up now, thinking about how fortunate we were to miss being a part of a horrible accident. Again, another God moment.
What's the lesson in all of this (because you know there is always a lesson)? Good and bad will come in parenting (and heck, in life). Let's not forget to be MINDFUL and THANKFUL that the bad times are fleeting, good times are just around ahead and we are taken care of protected all the time by a merciful God!
*M