Children are tiring. Each age has their own way of tiring you, as an adult, out. Right now I have two toddlers. They are full of energy or in some cases beyond tired and out of energy but cranky and in need of assistance to make it to bedtime. But no matter what state your children are in, be it energetic, hungry, angry, bored or ill, they seem to require more energy input from you as an adult than you expect.
It does get better in some ways over time though. For instance, my children sleep through the night. And they sleep well. Sometimes one needs to be re-blanketed or repositioned, but for the most part, we have our nights back, and that is a great thing.
My children can climb up and down stairs themselves, which is a very helpful thing. It's fun to be putting breakfast on the table and have them come down the stairs happy to see you in the morning.
My children are also potty trained. Okay, maybe not. Maybe definitely most certainly not when it comes to my daughter. My son mostly is, but my daughter is still in the whole training phase. There is more time spent in the potty negotiations and trips and changing when accidents happen and washing out of the soiled underpants than there ever was in plopping them on the changing table and putting a new diaper on. But I hear this potty training thing pays off later, so I'm not arguing.
One of the nice things is that at this age, I can leave them alone for a while if needed. They're reasonably trustworthy. I wouldn't leave them alone for too long, because they might take a notion to investigate the spices, open up the white pepper container, pour large amounts into a paper bowl they found and then start eating it. And yes, this did happen.
They weren't at all pleased with how the pepper tasted. We tried not to laugh too much as we cleaned up the mess.
The Big Boy Update: Apples and oranges. We struggle with making sure our children get a balanced and varied diet. I know we aren't nearly as strict as many parents, but if we can get in good foods, I'm okay with a cookie or ice cream factored in at some point too. He eats well at school and today at lunch he preferred apple and orange slices over quesadilla. I didn't mind that some of the meal food wasn't eaten because he was full of fruit.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: French braided hair. I have a hard enough time getting her hair in one or even two bows. She doesn't hold still and she likes to take your work out once it's complete. Today, she came home from camp with french braided hair ending in pigtails. It was very cowgirl cute on her. Pearl said she sat still and let her do it surprisingly.
Fitness Update: I wore my heart rate monitor to the fitness room this morning because the calorie burn count on the elliptical machine is outrageously high and I wanted to confirm what the true burn was. I wasn't surprised to find out I was only burning 40% of the calories it was counting. Still, a half-hour on the elliptical machine is a tiring thing at resistance level twenty-five.
Someone Once Said: The commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.
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