When you are parenting small children it is exhausting. There are days that I am counting the minutes till bedtime, not for the two little boys I spend my days with, but for me! I had always heard that parenting was the hardest job in the world, but after waiting tables for 14 hrs in a day, I really doubted that. I couldn't imagine, at 23 years of age, anything being more tiresome than being on your feet meeting the demands of hundreds of customers for 14 + hours. Now, I can. I can believe the meeting the demands of two little boys, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week is much harder than waiting on the hundreds.
The one positive of waiting tables is that you typically receive some type of appreciation for your hard work - with parenting, those days are typically few and far between. Today however, I received the sweetest thank you from my boy.
We had gone to the park earlier in the day and played with friends, and then came home for lunch and naptime. About mid afternoon though Nathan become quite sick, and spent the rest of the afternoon throwing up. This poor child doesn't just throw up once and then feel better. He has what my father has, a spasmodic stomach. Once it starts, it just doesn't stop. I typically have to give him medicine once he has purged everything, to get his little stomach to stop. Because he is so thin, within an hour, he looks like chemo kid - he turns green, gaunt, and has black circles under his eyes. It's so pathetic.
After his second dose of medicine, he finally stopped throwing up everything and appeared to be making a turn for the better. We were so thankful as it was near bedtime, and I was dreading the idea of the long night ahead of me. As I tucked him into bed, he turned and said, "Thanks mom for taking me to the park, it was so much fun!" It literally melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes.
See, we have been working on thanking God for the best part of our day when we go to bed and say our prayers. Nathan has typically not had the best memory of the events of the day - so we have really been working on it. It was so neat to hear him initiate that on his own, admist the dreadful afternoon he had had being sick. Of course the chemo kid look and soft voice helped the moment too.
After a really long day with Nathan he thanked me for
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