The Joys of Parenthood!

The last couple of days have been pretty relaxed. Jackson woke up yesterday morning with a slight fever and claiming, with tears in his eyes, that he "lost his yawn". Which, translated means that his throat was sore.

We stayed inside all day yesterday, so today I thought it would be fun to carve our pumpkin outside on the porch. I got him changed out of his PJ's, and found us a pattern online that I thought wouldn't be too difficult to carve. The carving kit I bought consisted of a small saw, and a scoop. He claimed the scoop, and told me that I would use the saw. As soon as I cut the top off of the pumpkin, he was out. He didn't want anything to do with mess inside. He wouldn't even come close to it, so he decided that he was going to go to the backyard and play.

Not two minutes after hearing the backdoor shut, I hear him screaming. I, still on the front porch, run through the house and out the door to find him under the trampoline with a can of bug spray (strong stuff, with a lot of deet), covering his eyes. He wouldn't come out, and I couldn't reach him without crawling under the trampoline. Usually that wouldn't be a problem, but right now that's not a very easy task. We run to the bathtub, and I start trying to rinse off his face, and his eyes with a washcloth and water. He's still crying. Then I found one of the medicine syringes that you use for babies. I put some water in it to try to drop it into his eyes.

Now, Jackson is not very trusting when it comes to any medical intervention. He doesn't like it when I try to clean his boo boos, he is scared of neosporine, peroxide, band aids, most anything like that. He doesn't mind taking medicine and vitamins though, because they make them taste so good he thinks it's candy.

With that, I knew it wasn't going to be easy to put drops in his eyes. I ended up having to pin him down in my bed to do it. He was crying the whole time, (which made it even more difficult because his tears made his eyes harder to hold open) and saying that he wanted to go "love his babies"(his many stuffed animals). I know this makes me sound like the worst mom, and I'm sure it was quite traumatizing for him, but I was really worried he was going to go blind or something, and I had no idea how much spray actually got in his eyes to begin with.

It's is so frustrating when you are trying to do something for your child to help them and all they do it fight you on it, and I am well aware that this is a conflict that all parents have with all of their children until they're not children anymore. It's just under different circumstances throughout the different stages of the child's development. Still annoying!

So, after all of the drama, I left him in the house and told him not to go back outside until I finished with the pumpkin (yes I still wanted to finish my Jack-o-lantern). When I came back in, I found him asleep in his bed with all of his babies. So, I think I'm done for the day. Just think, all I wanted was a fun pumpkin carving activity for me and Jackson to do.

I am really starting to worry about the thought of two boys. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for Colin to be here and for Jackson to meet his little brother. Jackson has just been really good lately at stressing me out and I know how multiple boys together can be. Granted, I know the joys that come from being a parent, and I know they will be two fold with two babies. I also know that there is no greater learning experience in life than raising a child, and no greater trial. I know that there is no greater blessing in life than to be a parent of one of God's children. However, will I be able to remember that when I'm trying to clean bug spray out of two, fighting boys eye's? Let's hope so!