Count your blessings

My wish for all of your this holiday season is that you can all count your blessings as I can. That every time life gets a bit crazy, a bit overwhelming, that you can stop and count. If you give yourself that gift you can smile more as you go through those tough moments.

 

As I drove home tonight with three kids in the back seat and a really long day behind us (as it always is) I felt really thankful for my three crazy kids. Yes as you can imagine, it gets really nuts around here. I swear we are the only ones walking into daycare with one crying, one wanting held, and one running wild as we go. I hear the following often: 'wow you have your hands full', 'your house must be crazy', 'I don't know how you do it'....and the likewise comments can go on. But really, I love it, I do. I've always been a little crazy so maybe that is why - but I love most all of it. yes I do have my crazy 'bad mom' moments where it's overwhelming, yes I wish Jacob would stop torturing the girls, that Addison would give Jacob a chance, and that Madalyn would stop dragging Addison around like she is a doll. But all in all we are really lucky - and they are lucky to get to grow together, experience together, get mad together. While Jacob may torture his sisters - he will give his precious binky up without hesitation if Addison is crying. Madalyn loves to put them to sleep and act like mom. Addison is my loner - happy to have two minutes of peace away from the other two but is always up for pretending with Madalyn.

I can see it all now - Madalyn my dancer who is too good will grow up to be the popular girl in school who I have to convince constantly that she can make mistakes. Addison - oh year she's going to give me trouble - I see tattoos and piercings and some dark makeup in her future, but hey we could all use a little bit of Goth around. Maybe she will get into gymnastics - with how tiny she is and how much we hang her upside down, it would be fun. Jacob - now the debate is what he will be. Jonathan wants a sporty kid, typical guy. But he has a very awesome mechanical nack and can figure out problems in such a great way - I think he'll be my little programmer. Hey, a girl can dream :). They will hopefully be healthy and not into drugs and that's the only thing I want really for them. The rest they will figure out and surprise me.

I count my blessings often, it's why I'm so glad I have them. It's not a hard thing to do, I almost lost 2 out of 3 of them so it's hard not to love every laugh, smile, and crazy thing they do.
1. Technology for babies - it's why I march for babies for the March of Dimes - can you imagine if we had no clue that Addison had a condition that would kill her in-utero?  We would not have kept on top of it and known when it was time to get them out of me.
2. Addison hearing my prayers - 31 weeks was the magic number that would give Jacob the best chance and Addison a chance as well for both to live. 31 weeks, that is 8 weeks early and still really risky - but the alternative was not a good one. so we threw out pregnancy books and focused on the goal....31 weeks. Addison did it, she is my hero - she kept slowly growing and had no big changes until - 31 weeks!! they were born at 32 weeks, 1 day. blessing counted.
3. Nurses in the NICU - Jacob fought to breathe for what felt like 100 days, in reality it was closer to 4 days. Until his lung finally collapsed and he got a chest tube in to help. The nurses kept him comfortable, kept me back, and watched him like a hawk. I swear the one was his own angel - he kept calmest for her.
4. Healthy kids - all three could have had all kinds of health issues. I see tons from the nicu kids, and random things for a bunch of little ones. my kids are active and healthy. some times it would be nice if they sat still but why wish that on them - maybe they would not be able to move at all? who would want that...
5. Happy kids - I hate when they frown, Madalyn can be really hard of herself - I have to remind her often that it's ok to make mistakes, break things, say the wrong thing, fall. I know it's not realistic but if I could stop every sad moment from them I would. Instead, I'll be thankful they have no reason to be sad now.

The list could go on, but those are my top ones - the ones I remind myself of when everyone is screaming and others around have no idea what to do. Someone up there knew exactly what they were doing when they gave me the three of them - a mom who can remember what it was like to be a kid, who does not expect the best all the time, who has made the fun mistakes in life, who can ignore three screaming kids while she eats a piece of pie. So while it may look hard (and it can be), you can also be secretly jealous of how much I love it. sadistic I know...

Merry Christmas all.