Valentine's Day NOT Complaining

Bryan woke me up this morning two minutes before my alarm went off: "(cough, cough) Hey babe, you're going to have to get the girls this morning. I'm sick." My response: "The girls are still asleep, as I was until about five seconds ago. Did you really need to wake me up right now to tell me that?" Awesome, right? Totally what he wanted to hear, I bet. My attitude has sucked all day. It started last night and it's been annoying myself, so I know it's annoying my family. I keep thinking about what a terrible Valentine's Day it is, which is ultimately so stupid. It's been difficult to keep my resolution to stop complaining and stay positive. I'm learning that it helps to actually write the positives down (or at least draft a list in my head) until they push out the negatives and make it all seem insignificant. So here it goes:

Despite my having to get both girls AND myself ready this morning, I was able to sit down to breakfast with them and still get to work earlier than normal. Plus I got to see my sweet Eden love on her sick Daddy. He was sleeping on the couch, and she whispered, "Mommy, his feet are uncovered. I'm going to get him another blanket." And she lovingly draped his feet with one of her crocheted blankets, softly patting them at the end like the sweet nurturing girl she is.

This morning I got to witness Leah's intense attachment to the director of her daycare. I'd heard she was attached, that the director was the only one who could calm her down in the first few days she started, but I saw it with my own eyes today, and I am now convinced the feeling is 100% mutual. It makes me so, so very happy to have my kids taken care of by people who truly love them.

I have a complicated, time-intensive memo to work on at work, and a couple of other deals heating up. It gives me something to do; things have been moderately slow lately, so I am happy to be able to stop worrying about hours. During the slow time I've connected really well with some fun colleagues, which has been nice, so I'm thankful too for distractions.

I was able to leave work early to get the girls from daycare (law firm perk numero uno in my book - flexibility with hours). When Leah saw me, she squealed and gave me the sweetest, longest hug ever; I almost cried right there in front of her teachers. For a minute I thought she was going to fall asleep on my shoulder. And even though we had to run two - TWO - errands after work, on opposite sides of town, nobody had a meltdown, and we made it home before No-Nap Eden started to get too crazy and Way-Too-Short-A-Nap Leah started to wilt.

My husband, despite feeling yucky and weak, was able to pitch in a bit at home so I could get dinner on the table and the girls both bathed and in bed. (And I'm SO thankful and appreciative of the fact that he cooks dinner - GOOD, real, balanced MEALS for dinner - five nights a week while wrangling the kiddos all by himself. I'm not even sure my brain understands what that means. Usually when I have them by myself on the weekends it ends up being something frozen I just heat up. Or leftovers I piece together.)

Miss No-Nap was whining this evening, and I got onto her for it, as we do fifty million times a day. I told her if she whined one more time, no books before bed. And she stopped. She talked to me in her big girl voice and took a completely appropriate tone. For most of the rest of the night.

And now I've got three sleeping Valentines, a therapeutic blog post written, and I am about to settle down into some productivity for the next few hours.

Thanks for listening, Interwebz.

And here's a little cuteness for your time: