Being a Mom is Being an Actress

I recently came to the conclusion that being a mom is all about being a good actress. I love my kids dearly, but boy do they know how to drive me crazy!!! Yet, what kind of a mom would I be if I let that show? So at some point every day, I play the role of "Happy Chipper Mom." I understand being a 2 and 4 year old is tough. But the emotional drama that goes on in our house over nearly every little thing pushes me to the limit sometimes. Whether it's that the oatmeal is too hot, the gloves are hard to put on, or the desired book is missing, the reaction is the same: mass hysteria. Whining, screaming, crying. Many times I thought someone had been cut or burned based on the reaction and come to find out, it was something like their sunglasses had fallen on the ground. My gut reaction at these times is to scream, "Are you kidding me?!? That's all it was!? Are you out of your mind!? I ran all the way over here thinking you were dying! Stop crying over nothing!" But that's when my acting skills come out and I become Empathetic Mom! "I'm so sorry you can't find your other glove/dropped your spoon/are having trouble putting on your shoes. Let me drop everything and come help you. We'll fix it together!" And the Oscar goes to Michelle! I think this whole thing helps me understand God so much better too. How often does he likely think, "You're upset about that!? That's nothing!" Yet he shows empathy, sends comfort, answers prayers, and leads us along. And I'm guessing he's not just acting. I have a lot to learn.

When I find myself slipping and the volume of my voice rising, then I take the kids and flee to a place where there are sources of distraction. On Saturday this was Ikea. Man, I love that place. I just want to buy entire showrooms there. My kids love it too. Wanna know what we don't love? The fact that once you're ready to pay for your items, you get to walk another 10-15 minutes through the rest of their store to the checkout, even if you know all the shortcuts. Marketing genius but a mom's nightmare. But that aside, we had a great time playing and especially trying on hats and headbands.



Last week my choice of distraction was the zoo. Should have checked the weather. It snowed about 3 inches while we were there. We had a blast, though. Sure, you can forget about the tigers and the giraffes in that weather, but man are the seals, penguins, otters, arctic foxes, and polar bears in rare form. It was a real adventure. And no one complained of cold or whined once! A true success.



By the way, Happy Valentine's Day! We made Valentine mobiles for the kids' room last week. I wish I'd remembered to take a picture of the final product before Benjamin destroyed it while he was in time out yesterday. But here's a cute picture of Bella with part of hers.


Benjamin's class did a Valentine's program where they hid in boxes and then after we'd come into the room, they all jumped out and sang a song about mailing themselves to us. Very cute. Also, Kelly and I went to our ward's Valentine's dance on Saturday. That was a blast. I requested the Electric Slide and had so much fun dancing to it. Strangely, Kelly and I were the only ones who knew it! So we rocked the casbah all by ourselves. We're nerds and proud of it.


Oh, and Happy 1/2 Birthday to Christian! Little Man turns 6 months today. He's still waking up a lot at night, but he's learned how to roll and sit (with occassional falls), he's eating solid foods, and he's getting so big! He's a wonderful, happy baby and we love him.