she requested it

My kids fight.

I loose my cool way too many times a day.

I have to apologize to them.

Sometimes I think I will lose my mind if I see one more Lego on the floor.

There are moments, some days too many of them, that I ponder just locking myself in my closet with a coffee and cookies.

Then there are the other moments.

The ones that I treasure.

The ones that I watch and can’t possibly believe how good I’ve got it.

She wanted her toes painted. She DIDN’T want me to do it. She wanted “her boys” to do it. One volunteered. This boy ~ I am going to have to really watch when he gets a bit older. He loves deeply. He is compassionate. He is bewildered by girls in a cute way. He has a crush on his teacher and takes her random gifts whenever he can. He is a big fan of his little sister and takes me seriously when I tell him to encourage her in all her girly ways…even when he thinks those girly things are weird.

I had to do touch up work with nail polish remover.

Whenever she looks at her toes, she reminds me who painted them.

She’s a funny little girl. Minutes after getting hot pink toes, she found her brother’s beanie and her lego tower. My girl. I cherish that celebrating her girliness and wanting to be just like her big brothers coexists for her. I am super proactive with the boys that they celebrate her differences too. So far, we are doing good most days.

I’m sure it wasn’t long after the precious toe painting moments that a fight broke out in the house. Someone probably started bleeding somewhere or a jedi kick accidentally took out another jedi. These pictures were taken on Saturday. Saturday was a really hard day around here. However, it seems like the most beautifully mundane moments are in the midst of the totally craziness.  In those moments, I am reminded how incredibly grateful I am to be exactly where I am…with these kids. I have today with them…..and I hope I have many more toe painting days in the future.