(It’s my Five Minute Friday on Wednesday, y’all). KEEP.

It’s just before midnight and Second Son has been squalling in his bed, inconsolable and ANGRY at being awake, punching me when I attempt to comfort him. I’m sprawled across my covers, tears pooling at the knowledge of how much sleep we are all missing. It’s not the first night he’s done this, and part of my bone-tiredness comes from his older brother springing awake each morning before five and refusing to nap later.

I’ve finally resigned myself to the inescapable fact that my thirties will be a sleep-deprived haze of coffee and yoga pants, but it’s no consolation this night and all the nights after it.

BUT. Take heart, weary mamas.

This is not the end, just the beautiful chaotic beginning to these Image Bearers I’ve birthed. This is normal, real  life for a toddler mama and it is foggy yes, but extraordinary too. So keep your head up fellow sojourners, keep your eyes open. Keep the coffee clutched close and your yoga pants at the ready. Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss it.

The joy to be found in a gargantuan leaf pile. The moment when the Wee Man snakes his arm around my neck and tells me I am the best snuggler. The conversation when the J Girl tells me about her first crush. (THAT HAPPENED, BY THE WAY. STILL FREAKING OUT.) Second Son and his enthusiastic “yeah yeah yeah.”

All the living to be had in each moment.

~M.