now introducing...

**Disclaimer: My mom read this and emailed me saying, "Whoa, girl...give yourself a break!" I love my mom. I am not having a bad day today or sitting around pondering how terrible I am, I promise. I was partially poking fun at myself and how much things change once you have kids. This post was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, which is why I told the story about the park. Those things are hysterical after the fact. Okay, read on!

The winner of the "Loser Mom of the Universe" award! Congratulations, Deanna...you're a loser!

The other night after the kids were in bed, I was giving Keith a play-by-play of our day. I told him something that had happened (I can't even remember now) and said, "I felt like I should win the loser mom of the universe award today." It cannot just be me, right?

For me, it is the worst when I falsely accuse the boys of misbehaving. Dinner was almost finished the other night when I said, "Hey Micaiah, what are you doing?" I could see Caleb, but not Mic and all was quiet. When Mic didn't answer after my third time of asking...I raised my voice. As I did, I looked around the corner to see my boy sitting on the couch holding one of his little bears. Just sitting, not misbehaving. I went right over and apologized for raising my voice, though I did explain to him that he needs to answer when I call his name.

There are other times when the actions of my children make me look like the "Loser Mom of the Universe" (or at least that's what I think that others think of me). I took the boys to the new playground the other morning for over an hour. Caleb decided he was ready to go home, to eat lunch of course. Mic didn't want to go home so he started rolling around on the grass. Screaming. Crying. Flailing. Oh yeah. It was so fun. Caleb wanted to leave rightthissecond, so he started crying too. We couldn't leave because Mic was flailing and we couldn't stay because Caleb was hungry. I had jackets in my arms and a ball. Mic finally stood up and I managed to get them both home in one piece. They were wailing the whole way. It's good for my humility, though...that's for sure.

Children make you humble. They don't allow you to look all put-together. They make messes and they make you look bad in public. But, they teach you how to live. They teach you how to laugh and take life less seriously. They teach you how to forgive and love unconditionally.

And they make me want to be a better parent...for myself and for them.