9/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014."

Stella: Just like that, she navigates obsticles all by herself. 

Hugo: Just like that, he falls asleep. Again.

This week has tested us, ohhhhhhhh boy, has it ever. We're trying to find our footing as we figure out how to be a family of four. We're all trying, sometimes more successfully than others, to learn how to manage everyone's needs in the face of all these changes. Big feelings are bubbling up, and so are big outbursts. Tears have been flowing, and tempers have been short. These incidents have not been limited to the children, I must admit.

It is incredibly difficult to remember, in the face of behavioural outbursts, overwhelm, and general preschooler assholery, that this is all temporary; that's these reactions are due to exhaustion, and the emotional chaos that comes from a little person whose world has been rocked. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that we'll find our equilibrium again.

And still, as I go though my collection of snapshots from the previous week, I am reminded of the ways in which all these tiny daily trials have forced us to grow. Stella climbs a rock unassisted. She puts on her own sock. She sneaks off into her room, creating imaginary domestic dramas. I face down exhaustion, and navigate three days of solo parenting, late bedtimes and early wake ups.  

We'll all make it out the other side. This much we have gained in growth, this much in love. 

+++

Last week I came across this blog which I'm now happily following. Isn't this girl and her haunted house captivating? 

And this wee one, frolicking in a golden field. And of course, perennial favorites and endless sources of inspiration, one and two. 

Linking up with Jodi as always.