Moments

It's easy to make everyone think parening is easy. You through up some posts about how wonderful everything is. Put on some smiling pictures of kids and parents and Viola! Happy Parenting. Piece of cake right? Lets be honest folks. This isn't easy.

Parenting is made up of fleeting moments. Some of them you can catch on video. Some you can catch in photos. But in general, most of them are for only those present at that particular snapshot in time. Some moments are great, others, not so much. Hence the rollercoaster ride of being a parent.

Dad's rollercoaster ride hit some all time highs and lows over the past 24 hours. Clickety clack up the hill seeing Charlotte playing at school, listening intently, he was so proud of her. Seeing Maeve experience the joy of eating grilled asparagus made him smile wide. Then crashing down the hill as Charlotte behind closed doors refused to nap and proceeded to strip down, remove her dirty diaper, and then proceed to step in it and Maeve waking up consistently throughout the night and bright eyed at 5am.

Dad can only say he is sorry. Sorry he yelled at Charlotte for the mess. Sorry he yelled at mom when he went to get the box of wipes to clean it up and realized it was empty then threw the box accross the room. Sorry he swore at the top of his lungs like an irate trucker. There is no excuse, just a realization of what a jerk he was. Lack of sleep and frustration let his anger get to him and he is sorry. Im sorry Shelby. And I am sorry Charlotte.

Just when you think you have this parenting thing down, you realize that the little things like finess in how you express your anger and frustration is really important. Its also important for Charlotte to one day read this to understand that its difficult being a parent. It takes work. Constant work and constant understanding of what you did wrong so you can hopefully avoid the same mistakes. There is no book I have ever read that said, "Beware that one day you will become so frustrated, so tired, and so angry that you too will act like a 3 year old." It would have been nice to read somewhere.

Luckily no one took pictures of dad ranting and throwing things. However, we did take some pictures of the good moments. Marvelous Maeve devouring pizza crust. The toothless wonder has amazing technique. Soaking it in her mouth, softening the crust so she can gum it into little squishy morsels.


Ahh the fresh grilled asparagus. A Ronan family favorite. Mom, dad, and Charlotte have races to see who can eat a stick of asparagus fastest. By the looks of Maeve she will be the one beating all of us!





There is nothing better than warm cozy socks. Charlotte seems to enjoy wearing them with her wonderfully coordinated clothes. The socks really complete the outfit.