Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake

On Norah's first birthday, we fed her an organic mini bran muffin with honey yogurt "frosting" and it was still so sweet to her (she had never had refined sugar before) that she cringed and cried from the high when she bit into it.

Her first 2 years of life, when we visited friends and  family's homes, I dutifully asked our hosts to turn off all screens in Norah's presence because the APA recommends no TV before 2, and I was concerned about what second hand tv exposure could do to her little growing brain.

Nap time was sacred.  Never pushed back or forward to accommodate a change in schedule.  And,  Norah was bathed daily.  By both Lucas and I!  Both. Of. Us. Every. Day.

With Norah, I always imagined things would get easier when she could crawl, walk, talk, read, write. I would dream of her growing older and long to know what she would be like at the next stage, sometimes missing the one right in front me.   When we had errands to run or things to do, I was on a mission.  Sometimes impatient about the ways that having a little one in tow could make simple chores or every day tasks that much more challenging.

But Harper, our baby girl, has a very different life.  Sometimes, I feel a little guilty about the ways that things have changed like:

 This is a perfectly acceptable form of entertainment.  In fact, it is one of the most benign forms of silence we can come by in this house.

This counts as a nap.

And we got through the entire week this week before we realized we hadn't bathed the kids once.  Not once!

But, I'm sure in many ways it's MORE fun for Harper that we've lightened up a little bit, like when:

Harper had a full sized Trophy's cupcake for her first birthday.  And a full crowd of family right in her very own household (no party required) to sing to her as she stared in delight at her cake and at us.

Or when I searched the entire 2 stories of our grocery store to find her this, "caw" just because she wanted it. Yes, it took us half an hour longer to get through the store but it was worth it.

We can't be as dedicated to every little detail of each day for our kids, that's just the nature of having a larger family.  Things fall through the cracks, chaos is the order of the day, and we have had to let a lot of things go. But these days, I'm not so sure that's always a bad thing.  Because, as it turns out, the devil IS in the details, but God can be found even amid the craziness of everyday living in our house.

So, we have learned to keep calm and eat a cupcake- with a messy table and a cluttered, noisy home filled to the brim with love; in spite of or perhaps even because of, the imperfections.