Prayers are Answered

Last week was my first week of watching overlap of Flynn 4 months old and Will 6 weeks old, and of course my darling Maxine. Wednesday was the first day. Honestly, I couldn't sleep the night before.

'What if they are hungry at the same time?'

'What if one cries and wakes the other up?'

'What if Maxine freaks out about all these babies?'

'What if I lose my patience with Maxine because I'm stressed?'

Oh man, the list was endless. I had already prayed lots and lots for the babysitting to go well. I asked Seth to say a quick prayer for me for extra comfort around midnight. I fell asleep almost immediately after that prayer.

Wednesday morning, before Flynn arrived, Maxine and I said our breakfast prayer together. I asked the Lord for extra charity, patience, and kindness. I told him I was very worried and to help the babies be easily soothed today.

At 8 am Flynn arrived and it went well, like normal. We know him, he knows us, we have fun, we all love each other. It's not difficult with Flynn at all.

Will would come at 12:15. Flynn gets picked up at 4. Not a huge deal right? That's what I kept telling myself.

I really wanted Flynn to be asleep when my friend brought Will over. I knew she would be sad about leaving him for the first time, and I didn't want her to feel like she was leaving him at a daycare with 9 million babies. I prayed, this is dumb, I know, for Flynn to sleep when she brought him. Sure enough, he crashed at noon. Not only was he asleep when Will arrived, but he slept long enough for me to spend alone time with Will and Maxine.

Will ate, and slept. He hardly cried at all when I laid him down. Flynn woke up while Will was sleeping and ate. I played with Flynn. He took another small cat nap before he got picked up. Will woke up and ate. Flynn woke up and was picked up.

The whole time Maxine played with me. Or helped me with their binkies or handed me bottles. She was great.

When Will got picked up at 6:15 ish. I finally relaxed. We did it. I mean to say, the Lord, Maxine, and I did it.  We watched both babies, had patience, love, kindness, and gentleness. Really truly, I know it was because of all the prayers. Everything worked out perfectly. It is no coincidence they slept so well on different schedules, ate on different schedules, played well, cried minimally, etc.

The next two days went the same way. The babies were up more at the same time each day, but really only overlapping about 45 minutes total. Maxine continued to be my little helper and pal. I felt like her and I were in this together.

It's not like Seth got a job, or we won a bunch of money, or some other huge thing. It's all the little prayers that were answered that were weighing so heavy on my heart. It's the answers to those little prayers that build up my faith so I know that at some point Seth will get a job, for example.

Anyway, I guess this is just a testimony that prayers are answered. It doesn't mean it will go perfectly, but our worries are heard.

I can watch two babies at the same time. We will all survive.

Toddlers

Maxine is now 15 months old. She's smart as a whip, cute as a button, funny as a clown, and naughty as a toddler.

Nah, she really is a good girl, but some days are harder than others. Example, yesterday we had FHE at the Temple grounds. We first ate dinner in the large field. She kept going into the street and we'd tell her, "If you go in the street you have to sit in your car seat alone." She'd smile at us and then walking down into the street. We would go show her what is the street and what is the grass (she knows what grass is) and blah blah blah, you know the parenting lines, well she'd end up in her car seat. This happened three times. Stinker.

Anyone have a favorite parenting book on this stage of life? We need more tricks/strategies to add to our repartee.