The Silver Lining

The past two days have been pretty rough. Alex and I are both getting over some kind of cold we came down with on Sunday, including fever, sore throat, congestion, and all that fun stuff. Yesterday he refused to take a nap most of the day and would cry after sleeping 10-15 minutes every time I put him down. So he was a pretty cranky guy by the end of the day. Meanwhile, Ben started running a fever so I knew he'd probably caught our cold. I got Ben in bed at 7 like usual and spent the next 3 hours trying to get Alex to sleep, so I was exhausted by the time I got to bed. I woke up to Ben mumbling over the baby monitor about midnight, but that turned out to be really cute because once he woke up completely a little while later he started singing instead of crying. This from the kid that wakes up crying every healthy day...funny guy. So I went to check on him and he was burning up with fever. I got him back to sleep and had to get up with Alex a few hours later, then both boys were awake at 7am. Ben was acting like he felt terrible and just crawled into my bed while I fed Alex, which is totally out of character for him. He perked up after breakfast but stayed home from school and was pretty whiny all morning because he just didn't feel good. Alex was just on his worst behavior all morning....fussy about eating (and breastfeeding is a whole different issue right now - I've done my best but my patience is wearing thin for his sloppy eating habits!) and refusing to nap again. To make matters worse, we still have the ever-present construction noise right outside every window of our condo, and they recently started working 12-14 hours a day, 6 days a week, through lunch to meet their deadline. I called to complain because 12-1pm used to be our one hour of peace where I could get Ben to sleep but the foreman said they'd be done with the drilling and pile-driving in 2 months(!!) so "not to worry"....sigh... On days where my patience is already wearing thin, that sometimes just about puts me over the edge because it's completely out of my control and I can't help either kid sleep through it. Through all the noise, somehow both boys got to sleep and I finally got in bed myself for a little blissful sleep when no more than 5 minutes later, someone in the unit above us started jackhammering tile. I just wanted to cry. Even though it was in their kitchen, the pictures all the way in our bedroom were vibrating because the deafening noise just resonates across the marble floors. Both boys woke up immediately but thank goodness Alex went back to sleep somehow and slept through the rest of the afternoon. Ben, on the other hand, came flying out of bed screaming and threw up his lunch everywhere. He was so upset he was shaking.

So what's my point in relating all my woes? While I was mopping vomit out of Ben's hair, I prayed for something to make my day happy and some reason to be excited to wake up tomorrow morning. Not that my life is so terrible I can't get out of bed in the mornings, because I have so much to be thankful for, but it just wasn't feeling that way this afternoon. And I do firmly believe in the power of prayer. And how did God answer? When Alex woke up from his nap today, he gave me the biggest smile in the world. It brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't have seen anything more beautiful or more needed today. He just smiled and gurgled to me all afternoon and my day completely turned around. Both kiddos were in bed and asleep by 8pm tonight, so hopefully the night will be better for all of us as well!

Here are several of Alex's expressions this afternoon:




And my other sweet boy got creative with the markers...he started drawing on his upper lip and I couldn't resist finishing the job! Once he saw it in the mirror he hated it and we had to wash it off immediately. I guess Ben won't be much of a facial hair kind of guy.