flowers

today when chad woke up he came directly into Kaiya's room and helped me clean it. Then he followed me into the kitchen and insisted that I stop cleaning, and follow him around and talk to him while he cleans today. I said that I'd feel much better once the dishes were done so I did the dishes instead. Then he cleaned the floors and the fishbowl and helped me with the laundry.
He was a happy helper too, and I must say that I felt very grateful for him today.


Then we went on a spontaneous date tonight for an hour and it was fun. and I felt like we spent some real quality time together for the first time in a long time. That was even more fun.

I love spending time with my main squeeze, it brightens my day!

I read this today while I was cleaning up the bathroom:

"The conduct of a growing child is full of undesirable and desirable behaviors--weeds and flowers. Given good nurturing, flowers grow so well you hardly notice the weeds. But often these flowers wilt at certain seasons and the weeds become more noticeable. If you just wait until that certain season is over, the weeds subside and the flowers bloom again--sometimes so beautifully that you forget the weeds are even there. Sometimes the weeds grow more quickly than the flowers, and you have to pull them out before they take over. So with the behaviors of a growing child. Part of disciplining a child is to weed out the undesirables that make a child unpleasant to live with so that the desirable flourish and make the child a joy to be around. "

Sometimes I think "what happened to my sweet little girl", and other times I think: I have the sweetest little angel in the world." It's always a toss up at any given moment which one I may be thinking. Her seasons are actually minutes long. Sometimes I only see mostly weeds, but most of the time I get to see the beautiful flowers.
These words comforted me and gave me hope that my child wasn't a lost cause, or more truthfully that I wasn't a lost cause, as her mother (or as A mother). and that I'm doing okay, and that all kids have times when they are weedy. But that there are always things I can do better, to help her happily adjust to being a two year old in this great big world full of new things. These words made me swell with the joy and pride that comes from raising my Kaiya. It's a rollercoater ride with it's ups and downs, but the flowers are so sweet and make the ride all the more worth riding.