Can we please get a moment of silence in honor of….a moment of silence.  A rare, fleeting, millisecond of the day that you can finally hear yourself think for the first time.  When you can sit down, close your eyes and take your first deep breath and let your brain catch up with your body and your body catch up with your brain.

I don’t know if it’s the time change, teething, nap schedule changes, or just this age in general, but right now I’m finding myself in the middle of a battle.  Where the worlds of the 3.5 year old and the 15 month old clash head on and I just spend my entire day deflecting, protecting and reacting to their every move.  By the time Greg gets home I am at a complete loss of words, energy and patience.  He usually takes one look at us and the condition of our house, rolls up his sleeves and jumps right in.  He has my back and I know I am so fortunate to have a husband that lets me tap out as soon as he walks in the door.  For this, I am grateful.

Today was no exception to the chaos.  I thought it would be a nice treat for me and the boys to eat lunch together in the warm Spring sunshine.  What this looked like in my head, and how it actually came together are two completely different scenarios.  Shane was clawing at my leg, begging and crying for me to cut his food up faster.  Nathan was barking orders…”No, MOM I don’t want the skin on my apples.  I don’t want WATER I need JUICE.  This is NOT Juice!  Stop making Shane’s food, I need MY food!”  I’m not sure how 3 plates, 3 drinks, 1 highchair and 2 overtired kids made it out the sliding door but we finally got there.  And once we did….there it was…that moment I described above.  The birds were chirping, the boys were quietly eating, I got to actually chew my food sitting down, and all was right in the world again.  I’m not sure when the simplest of things became so complicated, but I do know that I find these simple things to be what it’s all about.

Please don’t let these pictures fool you though.  I got about five bites in before Nathan jumped up from his picnic table, knocked over his food and shouted out to the whole neighborhood that he “needed to go poop!!”  Thanks kids it was fun while all 2 minutes of it lasted.