Lessons

It has been one of those days.

Okay, I lie. It has been one of those weeks. Last Monday, the weather was stormy and my daughter was fussy. When she wasn't sleeping or eating, she was mostly upset. She had an okay rest-of-the-week even though she preferred fussy over content. (Let me pause here to say that she is normally a VERY content baby. It is pretty rare for her to go beyond fussy to wailing, thankfully.)

Saturday and Sunday were busy. We spent Saturday afternoon with her cousins. Since she is our first, she's definitely not used to other children playing. Loudly. During her naptime. She slept, but ever so barely. Sunday morning we went to a rather loud church. She isn't used to drums waking her up at all during the week, and I don't think that we've ever been to a church that actually played drums. (As in with an actual drum-like sound...as opposed to the '70's light rock drum sound that is normally played in churches around here...) I really hoped that she would get some actual sleep today. Ahem.

Enter stormy weather.

At least she gave me some big smiles a couple of times today. I don't think I could have made it through otherwise. Even when she was asleep, I had to hold her the entire time because she woke up crying if I didn't.

And then I remember that I haven't been counting. I haven't been writing.

No big deal, right? I can just write them for the week, right? Yes, I could. But. My attitude had already gone sour. It took much longer to even write the ones that I normally flew from my pen. I had gotten so mad at my husband for nothing. I was so annoyed with my Little. And I ended up getting incredibly upset because of something one of my friends said on Facebook...something that didn't mean anything at all.

Those smiles? The fact that my husband takes care of our Little after working so hard and being so tired? The sun after the storm? Safety during the storms? My Little learning to laugh? Precious, priceless gifts. Each should be counted, needs to be counted. And I need to write them to remember.

21. Big smiles from my Little during diaper changes
22. Breaks during hot baths
23. Getting things done despite my fussy Little
24. Watching The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on a rainy afternoon
25. Diaper laundry done for another day
26. Sweet comments on pictures of my Little
27. Stuffed crust pizza sent from my husband on a day when he would be gone all day
28. Spending time with cousins
29. Little having someone to play with during church
30. Sweet tea filling the pitcher again