Vanguard: It's an Attitude!

As I was rocking sweet Anna to sleep this afternoon, I was reminded of a T-shirt I once owned (I guess Aunt DeeDee has it now, supposedly I gave it to her.) On the front it just said "Vanguard" and then the back said, "It's an Attitude"

I think I should make a handful of shirts that say "Mommyhood" on the front, and "It's an Attitude" on the back. Because that's what it is. I've certainly been reminded of that over the past 24 hours!

Yesterday Anna was pretty fussy. She wanted to be held constantly, and wouldn't sleep in her crib for longer than 30 minutes at a time. Since she was almost constantly crying, I found myself very short on patience when "dealing with" her older sister. I would snap at poor Adele if she didn't respond immediately to my requests.

We recently learned that Adele is allergic to Cookie, and so we have blocked off Cookie's access to all of the carpeted areas in our house. I had decided that yesterday was a "stay home and clean" day, and planned on cleaning all of the carpeted areas to the best of my ability to try and remove as much "Cookie dander" as possible. That was much easier said than done with Anna being as fussy as she was, and with Adele wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather outside.

Very little cleaning got done. I was pretty crabby about it. But when I sit back and put things into perspective, it was pretty dumb of me to waste an entire day frumping around the house because I couldn't clean. Here are some things I failed to consider yesterday:

1. I don't really like cleaning so I should've been thrilled to have an excuse NOT to clean!
2. Yesterday's weather was PERFECT! Much cooler than we've had in a while, and I spent lots of time outside with both girls playing in the yard (and even doing a little bit yard work).
3. I got to hold a chubby little baby for the majority of my day. I LOVE chubby little babies...especially sleeping ones.

So, I had no real reason to be crabby. I wasted a perfectly good day. Boo me.

Today, I woke up and mentally prepared myself for a repeat of yesterday. I made some extra strong coffee, scarfed down breakfast and waited for the girls to wake up. Soon enough I heard Adele stirring. I went upstairs and opened her door. She (not so politely) told me to close it again, because she wasn't ready to come downstairs. Sounded good to me, I wasn't going to take any chances with a crabby 2-year-old who preferred to stay in her room! I went downstairs, took a good long sip of coffee and started filling out some paperwork for Adele's preschool.

Just as I was finishing the paperwork, I heard coos coming from Anna's monitor. She woke up smiling, and when I went into her room to get her, she actually grabbed my hand and pulled it to her as if she was hugging me. She talked and smiled at me for several minutes before I took her out of her crib. Things were great until I brought her downstairs to change her diaper. As soon as I put her down she started squealing...just like yesterday. I talked her through the diaper change and decided that if I was going to hold this baby all day, I was going to be happy about it!

Soon enough we heard Adele ask for her door to be opened (in a much politer voice this time, too!). She joined us downstairs and both girls were full of smiles and snuggles.

The rest of the day has been business as usual. After running some errands, Anna fell asleep in my arms. I relished in the chance to sit in the quiet of her room while a not so sleepy, yet still in need of a nap Adele was belting out Anastasia songs across the hall. For whatever reason, I was reminded of my Vanguard shirt while I rocked her. (Probably because I was thinking of how the change in my attitude from yesterday to today has made an equally crazy day SO much easier!) After half an hour or so, I decided to try putting her in the crib. I was actually a little sad when she let me lay her down! (Because that meant dusting, you know...)

And here I sit, Adele finally fell asleep, the house is dusted, the windows are washed (gasp!), *some* laundry is folded, and there are new (to you) pictures of my little cutie up on my blog.

I just need to remember that Anna's a baby. Some days she's going to look like this:

And that there's absolutely nothing wrong with resting while she sleeps if that's the only chance I get!
(well...as long as someone is watching Adele!)





Ahhh! Life is good...as long as you have the right attitude!