Hard Lessons to Learn

As someone who never imagined being the mother of 3, I have to say things go pretty well 90% of the time. But the thing is, when things start to go bad, they go way bad and they go quick. We don't often leave the house during the week, I want to keep Ryan away from crowds and germs and I usually spend my 2 non-working days on laundry and other house stuff, but Friday something got into me and I decided to go to Paradise Park and like I said, things went surprisingly well. Ryan watched the boys, then fell asleep and the boys played well together and with some other kids that were there, until the end where Ryan woke up screaming, Kyle realized he left his jacket and had a melt down and Grant just went flying out the door and across the parking lot. Things didn't improve once when we got home to a house littered with toys and a 3 year old refusing to help pick up. We said if he was two tired to pick up, he was to tired to watch our Friday night movie which didn't phase him until the movie started at which point he started to scream. I was trying to feed Ryan and reiterate to him that he wasn't watching the movie while tying the belt of Kyle's Anakin Skywalker costume (the movie was Clone Wars which he had been excited about seeing all week, I felt bad that the experience was less the ideal, he kept saying that the didn't care if he had to pick up all the toys himself, to just let Grant come out and watch). I think it's more frustrating because I think about what Ryan went through and how lucky we are and all the blogs and stories I have read of other heart kids that aren't nearly as lucky and I think I should be a different parent, a better parent who appreciates how lucky I am. I guess I at least realize that and while it doesn't keep me from having the bad times, it keeps them from lasting to long. Anyways, the picture was obviously not taken on Friday, but is the first I have mangaged to capture of all 3 of them since Ryan's been off O2. It was kind a warm up for a Christmas card picture.