they win every time...

yesterday was a typical day.  3 meals down...2 active babes....1 good nap...and a partridge in a pear tree.

i was happy.  the babies were happy.  therefore, the parsley universe was peaceful.  maybe there was one minor meltdown because mommy wouldn't hand over the bubble wand, but besides that a pretty darn good report was given to daddy once he got home from work.

after bartering with tully to take one more bite of dinner in exchange for a slice and bake cookie (ain't no "from scratch" baking kind of day),  ben and i ventured on our nightly walk the kiddies through the neighborhood.

we went up and down each walkway and caveat we could find.  we wobbled through tall grass and ducked tree limbs that jutted out, smiling big at our newfound agility.  we even licked lots of dirty rocks out of curiosity for how one of those yummy, smooth, stone-colored thingies would taste ....well, "we" didn't do that.

once we got to the fountain in the epicenter of our neighborhood, ben and i had thought the babes would just sit and stare in awe of its glory until we directed them back towards our journey home.  heavenly daisy, were we wrong!  the parsley twins tag-teamed one another in throwing rocks in the fountain, running in and out of its spray, and any other mischief they could get into while mommy and daddy were chasing and scolding their mischievous counterpart.  these toddlers made us look insane...plain and simple.

the defeat we felt is nothing new.  our little ones can have us feeling so much anger and frustration one minute and then the next, they can have us eating partially-gnawed animal cookies out of their squishy hands.  they know mommy and daddy's buttons at only 20 months of age.  how is that?

i have attempted quite a few feats throughout the past decade or so...and "failed".  lovely examples are as follows:

~i headed off to college in birmingham after graduating high school in attempts to follow in my bright and beautiful older sister's footsteps only to realize that i had guessed wrong.  i was a ut gal living in a baptist world at samford...we just didn't mix.

~i majored in journalism later on because i thought i was going to be the next katie couric only the come to the realization that my voice is too "conetry" and i was afraid of the camera.

~i then toodled off to memphis for law school where sporting a pink suit like elle woods was not a reality.  ask my fellow classmates how i handled the stress:)

these incidents are now of the past and have made me stronger.....blah, blah, blah.  honestly, each of those memories obviously stuck out in my mind enough for me to remember them so vividly many twists and turns later.  the funny thing, though, about "losing" in the parenting game unlike the other instances is that everyone, both child and parent, come out as winners as cheesy as this conclusion may sound.

as the four of us meandered back home last night, i couldn't help but realize that the 4 of us were so dang lucky.  as i was looking down at minnie as she nibbled on my necklace, i glanced back to see ben hoisting tully up on his shoulders (tully was screaming out of anger for a good minute or so but that ruins the hallmark image i am attempting to portray).

while my children definitely seem to win most battles these days, i don't mind handing over a temporary trophy to them for the time being.  as long as they turn out halfway normal, decently attractive, and evidence of god's glory, this momma is a winner in her own book.  winner, winner chicken dinner!