Tonight The Twins Got Their Own Glass of Water

I want to share something with you...I don't know if you will appreciate its magnitude as much as Michael and I did but I still wanted to share...
When you have a baby (or in my case babies) you don't really realize how hard life can become. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and I love my children more than myself...but day to day tasks become difficult. It is always the little things, like putting your shoes on ...with children, that task takes minutes as opposed to seconds.
When it was just me at home with the twins it would take me exactly 45 minutes to leave the house for the park. We lived in city and every morning after morning nap I would pack us up and walk to the park. Packing, dressing, changing diapers, wiping noses, preparing zippy cups, changing shirts (for the second time), packing snacks, taking one last look at myself before entering the outside world, and putting our shoes on took 45 minutes.

Those routines take a toll. They exhaust you. At the time I never realized it was making me a stronger better parent. I never saw the fact that all of those little things were like building an endurance. I was building the endurance for the future planning, packing,  living I would do, with not only those two boys, but the other little boy I would have.
Michael would come home and he always asks, "How was your day?"
Some of those days I would cry. It wasn't my majority emotion but it certainly happened. When I look back I realize it was because my endurance was low.

(*most likely sleep deprived)

In time my endurance was better- stronger-  I was able to handle all the silly monotinous tasks. I shaved our leaving the house time to 20 minutes. When Michael and I would sit on the couch at night we would talk about the events in our day...what we read, what we saw, what the boys did (or didn't do)...one night we read an article (and for the life of me I can not place it!) The main point of the article was that "someday they [children] will be able to get their own glass of water."
BOOM! That one little line hit me. I finally got it. I finally understand all these things weren't supposed to be dreaded; they were supposed to be cherished.
From the time we read that article, Michael and I have really tried to appreciate everything. Some days we certainly DO NOT. Some days we are tired and hungry and exhausted and the fact that we have been "getting ready to leave" lasts an hour frustrates us but we always seem to remember "someday they will get their own glass of water."

Tonight Michael and I were sitting on the sofa watching a show- the boys were all playing with their toys- Doc walked in the kitchen- he grabbed his cup from dinner- walked over to the water jug- and he pured his own glass of water.
The sound of the water hitting the glass struck me.
When the noise stopped I took a deep hesitant breath, "Hey, Doc, did you just get your own glass of water?"
He replied, "Yeah Mom I did and I showed Buddy how to do it too."
I looked at Mike and grabbed his hand. Tears filled my eyes so fast...that's it, my heart fluttered... my twin babies grew up.

My tear-filled emotional moment only lasted so long though because Jack-Jack demanded "more milk" sooner than I could blink.

And so life continues... I am still going to keep cherishing... I am sure that the "mommy endurance" I have established will be ever so grandly used towards more things like raising young boys rather than baby boys...time will tell and I will continue to appreciate everything.