Makes It All Worth It

Yesterday I received an invite from a mommy blogger whose blog I recently discovered.  Mothers' Hideaway hosts a "Make it All Worth It Friday" and even though we've reached the end of Friday here, I still want to take the opportunity to post.  Not to necessarily gain more followers (though feel free to become one if you're not already), but just to put down some of the things I am experiencing right now, which later will (hopefully) make me say "It was worth it".

When I read the story that Mothers' Hideaway posted today I was convinced that she was that one fly on my wall that I haven't been able to catch.  Her story is exactly like mine.  (Except for the fact that Kai doesn't go to school yet).  Other than that: we are living the battles: over food, over naps, over brushing our teeth, over changing our diaper, over watching TV, heck over pretty everything that is important in a toddler's life (or in the life of his parent).

But...it doesn't stop with the toddler.  There is the baby!  Yes, the baby who has me wrapped around his little finger and who manages to also walk the fine line of driving me insane, to then later make me forget about all the things he drove me crazy with earlier.  Case in point: Ryder has been sleeping through the night since he was about 4 months old.  I started sleep training him at 4 months and within a week he got it.  Awesome.  Hardly any tears, no CIO (which I don't believe in), everyone happy.  Especially me.  Believe you me.
And then...2 weeks ago...it all stopped.  He started waking up at 5am every night.  Every.Single.Night.  No soothing, no going back to sleep, unless I nursed him.  And for the sake of everyone's my sanity (as David doesn't seem to notice the baby fussing, or he pretends not to notice, either one) I did that as it means I can go back to sleep within half an hour (instead of being awake for a good hour and half listening to Ryder be awake, thinking he is hungry).  And here we are, 2 weeks later and he's still waking up every night between 4-5 to nurse.  Yeah, he goes back to sleep after that, but still.  I am up and I don't like it one bit.  It makes for a groggy mommy in the morning.  One who feels like she's been hit on the head, or had way too much to drink the previous night (disclaimer: not the case, I know better).
But then, when the sun rises, the morning arrives and the house awakens, so does my  precious little baby.  I open the door, walk into his room and there he is: kicking up a storm, while trying to simultaneously chew on his toes, giggling and having a ball in his crib.  He looks at me and as our eyes meet, his eyes become big and he gets the biggest smile on his face.  Bigger than you could imagine.  The smile that melts my heart.  The smile that says "Oh mommy, you're here!!!  I am soooo happy to see you!!!"
And that's the moment.  The moment where it doesn't matter how often or how long I was up through the night, where it doesn't matter how sleep-deprived I feel.  That's the moment that makes it all worth it.

As I said earlier, there are some battles going on in our house between Kai and the parental unit.  Overall, Kai is the happy, playful sometimes pensive little toddler.  He is awesome and we rightfully call him our "Cool Dude".  One of the major battles at the moment is the diapering / potty training.  In a previous post, I mentioned wanting to start the training.  Well, here's what's up: I have officially removed his changing pad from his room.  Diapering happens in the bathroom from now on.  Over the past months, changing a diaper often ended in him kicking and screaming, as he did NOT want to be changed.  It, at times, sounded like I was torturing the dude, while all I wanted was to wipe the poop business off his little tushy to prevent a rash from developing.
This morning:
Me: "Kai, let's get a clean diaper and get dressed"
[Kai walks to the bathroom]
Kai: "Clean diaper! Clean diaper!"
[I take the diaper off, clean him up and as I am pull out the pull-up diaper:]
Kai: "No, no clean diaper!  No clean diaper!"
[he hates the pull ups]
Me: "it's the only diaper I have.  Do you want a clean diaper?"
Kai: "NO!  No clean diaper!"
Me: "Do you want to run around naked?"
Kai: "YES!"
[Could this be the beginning of him wanting to potty train?!?!  Is this really my lucky day?]

It turns out: no.  It was not my lucky day.

Long story short: he doesn't want to put the pull-ups on, but I continued to ask him for about an hour and a half if he needed to go to the potty.  He doesn't even want to come close to the toilet.  I tried M&M's, did not work.  I suggest he goes and sit on the potty, he screams as loud as a pig being slaughtered.  Seriously.

So, here I am.  I have a can of M&M's standing on the counter in the bathroom.  The training seat is installed, my toddler wants nothing to do with the potty and I am (supposedly) on a diet...with M&M's in the house.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE M&M's!!!  Sigh...  See the dilemma? 

Well, he went to bed for his nap with a diaper on (as soon as I put the diaper on, he peed - sigh).  For now, I am waiting anxiously for the 'It-makes-it-all-worth-it moment' and I hope / pray / heck, I'll beg for it to come.  Soon.  Preferably.

Finally, I want to do a shout out to a couple of blogger-friends who generously awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award:

Thank you to both Beth at Create Your Traditions and Jinnia at Jinnia Low for recognizing and appreciating my blog.  I am so pleased that you enjoy the read and I am honored to have received this award from you.

As I received this award earlier this week as well, I hope it is acceptable that I am going to refer to that post, as it includes the 7 things about me and the people I forwarded it too.

On that note, I am going to take a break and get some Vitamin S: (Sleep).

Happy weekend everyone!