I Hate it When

You know what? My life is good. Really, really good.

I've been married for eight and a half years to Ryan, and he's still just the right type of weirdo for me. I think he'd say the same for me, so we really couldn't ask for more. But we do have more. We have 3 terrific kids, and they are the smartest, cutest, cleverest, naughtiest, filthiest, funniest children you've ever seen. Add in the facts that Ryan has a very good job in a very tough economy, I can stay home with the kids, we're all healthy, we have a few good friends, and we want for nothing essential in life, and I'd say we're living the dream.

So, really, I shouldn't complain.
But if you've read this blog before, you know I do. I complain. A lot. Today will be no exception.

Do you know what I hate?

I hate it when your baby's success at finally sleeping through the night regularly is immediately followed by repeated middle of the night wake ups because he's pooped in his sleep.

I hate it when you go a whole day and a half without nursing and begin to think you're out of the woods, and then you slip up and nurse the baby just once. Because that means you FAILED! Now we're back to one or two times a day, and I need to start all over again. Do they make coaches for this?

I hate it when your husband knows you so well that it takes a tremendous amount of effort to make your ideas his ideas. I don't have the energy for all that.

I hate it when you realize it's two days before Christmas, and you have to go to WalMart. If I knew anyone at Home Office I'd suggest they start offering free delivery for grocery items if you live within a few miles of the store and you don't want to get caught in the madness and it's cold and wet and you have three kids and you never know if one of them will fall asleep on the way and two of them have to go pee when you're in the middle of picking out produce and they can't hold it so you all have to stop shopping and go potty and start all over again with the produce and the chaos will cause you to forget to buy bread, so you'll have to go back again. I really hate that.

I hate it when your feet are always cold in the winter, so you put on fuzzy socks, but they make your feet hot and sweaty after an hour, so you have to make a choice between cold feet or hot, stinky feet.

I hate it when you realize you accidentally bought a RedBox copy of Monsters vs Aliens because you just found it in the van's dvd player from your Thanksgiving trip to Alabama.

I hate it when I'm excited about Christmas at home with my little family, but I know the kids are sad about not getting to visit their cousins, and I really hate it when they tell me they really love Arkansas and all their friends, but they wish we lived in Alabama so they could play with their cousins and see their grandparents.

I hate feeling torn because I feel the same way they do some days.

But I love seeing them so excited for Christmas morning. Right now they can hardly stand it. They've been wrapping everything they can think of to wrap, including their own toys for each other and handmade artwork for me. We've made cookies and decorated gingerbread houses. Ryan has taken them each to work with him for a half day and then out shopping for presents for each other and me. Secret shopping, that is. It's just that the kids are terrible liars, and their mother is pretty cunning, so the secret didn't last. They have made snowflakes out of construction and wrapping paper and decorated our tree with them. They have counted down on their chocolate advent calendars Grandma and Grandpa Bedwell give them every year after Thanksgiving. The only thing left is to do now pretend they believe in Santa and wait. And they hate it when they have to wait!

Merry Christmas to you all. We hope it's your best one yet!