Thinking with kids.

It's not always easy to write. Even childless authors living alone in the woods can struggle with getting their thoughts down clearly...and I am far from childless and alone.

As I sit at my computer, trying to come up with a new post, I'm holding a squirmy baby on my lap. My toddler has given me a lecture on his "very rare" pirate doubloon, which he's entrusted to my safekeeping. I've had to settle two fairly heated disputes over the popular toy house with real locking doors. I've reminded the kids not to run inside, oh, at least a zillion times. How am I supposed to think like this?!

It's not just blog posting that my kids interrupt, either. Sometimes it's paying bills, or filling out paperwork, or even just figuring out what to make for dinner. I can barely string two sentences together - out loud or internally - without someone needing a drink, or a kiss for their booboo, or a dispute settled.

So, why will I miss these crazy, near-constant interruptions of my life? Well, even though it may be frustrating when I'm trying to accomplish something, all of the interruptions can be seen as signs of something positive. My toddler's enthrallment with his plastic, mass-produced pirate doubloon is pretty darn cute. Kids running through the house, well...at least they are being cheerful and having fun.

In twenty years, when the kids are all out of the house, I will most likely be grateful for being able to think my thoughts all the way through (assuming my brain recovers, haha) but I will surely miss having little ones around to entertain me with their enjoyment of simple things.

The toothpaste hand print.

You've seen the horror films where somebody slaps their bloody hand against a wall and drags it down, leaving this awful, hand-shaped smear. Heck, I don't even watch horror films - I'm too squeamish, haha - and I'm still familiar with this movie trope.

Well the other day, guess what I discovered on the bathroom wall:

Toothpaste is all the rage in bathroom decorating, I hear.

At least it's made out of toothpaste and not blood. How a kid got toothpaste all over their hand, and why they felt the need to drag their hand down the wall - the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom from the sink, by the way - I have no idea.

In keeping with my positive outlook, I am choosing to laugh instead of getting frustrated. I'm not entirely convinced that, in 20 years when my kids are all grown, I'll miss having a bathroom decorated with toothpaste...but I know I will miss the kids who decorated it.

Staying positive, day after day... after day... after day.

"They grow up so fast," my grandma tells me. "Enjoy this time because they'll be out on their own before you know it," old ladies at the grocery store warn me. Well, I don't know about you, but the last time I was scrubbing marker off my kitchen table, I wasn't thinking, "Gee, these are the days that will live in my memories forever!"

Except, you know what? Maybe that's what I should have been thinking. It sure would have beat grumbling under my breath. 

Staying positive is hard to do when you're raising children. It doesn't matter how well-behaved your children are, they are still children; and at some point, they are going to do something wrong. They will leave a small, hard toy out for you to step on. They will (accidentally or not) kick a ball into their younger sibling's face. They will spill their milk at dinner. You can be the best parent in the world and have the best kids in the world, and these types of things will still happen. 

So, as the old saying goes, you cannot control everything around you, but you can control your reaction. If you can't stop the grubby hand prints next to the light switch in the bathroom, you can at least choose whether to laugh or cry when you wipe them off for the millionth time. It is true - someday, those hand prints won't be there, because you won't have anyone with little grubby hands living in your house. I choose to be grateful for the little hands. I choose to laugh at the dinosaurs in the sink. I choose to stay positive.

This, then, is the point of my blog. I want to share the crazy little bits of life with children - the moments that I choose to laugh about. Someday, my kids really will grow up and leave; and judging by the number of old ladies who have told me I'll miss them, I'm sure I will. Until then, feel free to join me as I try to stay positive and enjoy the crazy bits of life with kids.