One of THOSE Days

It was one of THOSE days…you know the kind I’m talking about. It was a Monday. The work day was long and extremely busy. Every day after work though, I turn it off. I put on my mommy hat and I focus on my time with my son. That time is so very precious and I always make an effort to dig deep for him, even when I’m exhausted. I can be exhausted after he goes to bed.

So it had been a busy day, but I was home with my son now and doing our nightly routine. Once we get home, it starts with fixing dinner for both of us. Notice my choice of words there—fix, not cook. My son Roman was helping me heat up dino chicken nuggets, broccoli bites, and corn. While doing that, I was starting to wash all of his cups and containers that he had taken with him to daycare that day for lunch so I could get them clean to pack tomorrow’s lunch. Everything was going as usual…so far.

It was time to plate my son’s dinner. I walked over to his highchair and it was crawling with ants! I mean ants everywhere. I immediately threw his tray into the sink and doused it with dawn and water. It appeared that a berry-flavored Yogi from breakfast had not been thoroughly cleaned off from underneath the tray table. I should point out that my husband and I had noticed 2-3 ants on our floor earlier that day, but we stomped on them and didn’t have a second thought about it. Those little boogers clearly had a colony hiding somewhere. Anyways, I went back to his highchair to inspect the damage further, and unfortunately, the ants were crawling all over his high chair and were underneath the padding and all over the floor. They were everywhere! So, I did what I think most people would do and I took his highchair outside and set it in the garage. I could deal with that later after I got Roman to bed.

WRONG MOVE! Roman loves his highchair. Like really loves it. He’s a big eater and loves getting in his chair (I know, I know, I’m lucky). So when I took his high chair out to the garage, he had a complete meltdown. I mean FULL ON TODDLER MELTDOWN. I tried to comfort him. I tried to have him sit in my lap and show him that we could still eat. He wasn’t having any of it.

So at this point, I began to panic. I called my husband. He works late and often doesn’t get home until 7:15-7:30 pm. I left him one of those blasting voicemails. I said something like “I needed his help, we had an ant infestation due to his failure to clean the highchair tray properly after breakfast, how I knew he couldn’t help, that he probably wouldn’t even get this voicemail until after he got done with work, and that he’d better come home with ant killer or don’t come home at all.” I love my husband dearly so of course I didn’t mean that last bit, but I was in full on rambling panic mode.

It was getting late and I knew my son was hungry and still needed a bath, but he wouldn’t be able to calm down to eat while we were in the house. That’s when I had what I consider a pretty brilliant idea. We’d go out to Chick-Fil-A. I live pretty close to one and a change of scenery is exactly what Roman needed. He of course cried in the car the whole way to Chick-Fil-A, but once we got there, he calmed down.

We proceeded to have a very nice dinner just the two of us. I knew God’s hand was in this and He was turning our night around. We even had a very nice man who was cleaning up the tables at Chick-Fil-A come up and dote on Roman and bring him a children’s book for him to read. That man was so very nice and made Roman laugh and smile. I even got a call from my husband around 7:15 that he was already home, had gone to Lowe’s, and was working on killing the ants. Shew.

By the time we got home from Chick-Fil-A, it was close to 8:00 pm. We still had bath to do and we were up way past Roman’s bed time. We were just about done with bath and getting ready to drain the water when Roman leaned over to the side and…POOPED in the bath tub (side note: this wasn’t the first time this happened). And it wasn’t just any old poop. When I saw what was happening, I tried to stop it. I picked him up a bit, but it was too late. When he plopped back down, the poop smeared all over the bottom of the bath tub and stuck to it. No easy floaters to clean up. There was lots of scrubbing involved (all of which my poor husband later did).

At this point, I was about to lose it. I called to my husband for help. But then, my sweet little boy lost it again—for the second time that night. Another meltdown. That’s when it hit me—my son Roman was having a pretty bad night. At this point, focusing on him was most important. It was time for me to forget myself and my hard day. #graceupmama

Even though I wanted to scream at this point in the evening, I picked my poopy son up out of the tub and tried to soothe him. I talked in soft voices. I smiled at him. I hugged him. And I washed him again as fast as I could. I needed to get him into bed, and finally, he went down, completely exhausted, around 8:45 pm. Those last few moments of the evening were crucial. At my breaking point, I felt a gentle nudge from God and I was able to remain calm. I could have been screaming and panicking, which would have been my natural response, but instead I was able to comfort and love my son, which was what he needed. He calmed down and we were able to enjoy those last few moments of the day.

After Roman went to bed, my husband and I still had to clean up from killing the ants. We still had to clean the tub. My husband still had to eat dinner. We still had to finish washing Roman’s daycare cups and containers. We still had to prepare his lunch for the next day. We still had to shower. We also went to bed that night totally exhausted.

Looking back, my husband and I can now laugh about this day, even though it was only a few weeks ago. Although it was one of THOSE days for us, it was also one of THOSE days for our son. And putting our son first and offering him grace and love during a hard day is more important than any struggles that we went through.

Have you had one of THOSE days lately? How would you extend grace to yourself or others on one of THOSE days? As mamas, I know we all have the great days…and the hard days. Remember to be easy on yourself, and go with grace mama. <3