The dark

Yesterday Momformation blogger Betsy Shaw wrote about the tendency of 'mommy bloggers' to talk mostly about the negative side of parenting, and made me laugh out loud with this jewel of an observation:


It seems obvious to me that the “light side” of parenting, which, let’s face it, generally comprises those rare moments when your kids are either sleeping or eating candy, doesn’t have the same kind of entertainment value as does the dark side, you know– those times when your kids are actually awake.


We are currently in the "We'll-give-you-$5-million-dollars-and-a-pony-if-you-go-to-sleep-RIGHT-NOW" phase of the random behavior cycle. (For those of you keeping track, we just finished the I-will-die-a-horrible-death-if-anything-other-than-a-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich-somehow-crosses-my-lips stage.) Ethan is also skipping his nap a couple times a week, and 'the dark side' seems a very apt description of these many, many awake hours. I really love sleeping. One night early in his infancy, Tessa got up to feed him each time he woke up, the whole night. I can still vividly taste the relief of that gift. (I also vividly remember the look on her face the next morning, and it still makes me laugh.)

I have to agree that the crappy moments are usually much more entertaining- at some point. Well, most of them. I am still not laughing about the amount of poop I had to clean out of the bathtub yesterday, but it would probably have been downright hysterical if someone else had cleaned it up.