Love Your Spouse Challenge

This last summer there was a little Facebook "challenge" that was going around like confetti.  The "Love Your Spouse Challenge."  Apparently you were supposed to post a picture or pictures (I can't remember) for 7 days to show all your Facebook friends how much you love your spouse.

I warned Ethan ahead of time, so his feelings wouldn't be hurt.

If someone "tags" me in the challenge, I'm not doing that.

Someone tagged me. And I didn't participate.

I didn't post for 7 straight days pictures that prove how much I love him.  I don't need to prove to anyone out of Facebook how much I love my husband.  He knows.  Because I tell him.

However, I did save the idea in the back of my head for this post.  The birthday post.  There are more than 7 pictures that are some of my favorite, and there are many more.

You see, as much as I don't feel the need to prove to the world how much I love him or how happy and fulfilled I feel like my life is because of him, it is fun to sift through 8 years of pictures of us and see how much our lives have changed.

Probably the first picture we ever took together!

Later that same year.  Ethan sporting his "No Shave November" look!

My favorite picture from our wedding, captured by my brother.
A little fuzzy, but it captures the happiness in our eyes.

Honeymoon in Rio de Janiero.  Again.  Happiness.

He was so excited to have a little baby to snuggle on his chest.
Probably his favorite position with a little baby!

Daddy for a second time.  Pure love.

All the things that he is teaching them.  I love watching him with his girls!

Shocker fans!

Napping with little Katerina.  Still Shocker fans!

Teaching the girls the best part of summer.  S'mores!

Smile!  He is one great dad.

I don't feel like we are a perfect couple.  We have our differences, but those are mostly minor.  Minor differences in personality.  We don't fight.  We disagree on this or that, get annoyed with each other, and have different opinions, but we don't fight.  We get a lot of things right.

We have fun. And that's what it's all about.  We laugh at the silly comments, faces, and dance moves our girls have inherited (mostly from him...).  We sit in awe as we await baby #3, a boy, and look at the life we have created so far knowing that we are blessed beyond what we deserve.  Looking forward to new challenges, knowing that facing them together is the only way.

He's turning 38 this year and doesn't look a day over 28 (unless you look really close for the gray hairs...but even those can be hard to spot.)  Some days he doesn't act a day over 18 and those are usually the days I laugh the most.

Mushy enough for ya?

Picking Which Battles to Pick

"You've got to pick your battles."

Probably the most common said parenting tip out there.  Fight the good fight, but only with the issues that really matter.  Otherwise you'll be fighting everything.  All. The. Time.

The advice is good.

The picking can be difficult.  Just which ones are "the battles" to fight?

I am currently in a battle with a 4 year-old.

A battle I very easily could have walked away from.  No biggie.  But I dug in.  She dug in.

And here we are.

Over a fork.

You see.  I asked her what she wanted for dinner.  Spicy chicken nuggets with ranch and chips was her request.  I forced her to pick yogurt or a salad to go with it instead of the chips.  You would have thought that would have been the bigger battle, but alas, she picked salad.  With ranch.

Ok.  Dinner made.  Easy chicken nuggets warmed up in the microwave and salad.  As the nuggets came out of the microwave I cut them into smaller pieces.  Something I do all the time.  I cut them with a fork.  Again, like always.

I put ranch on her salad and stirred it up.  With the fork.

Set her plate on the table same fork.

"Mom.  You got my fork dirty, I need another one."

Nope.  You're not dirtying up another fork.  There is nothing wrong with that one.  Eat your dinner.

Fast forward 15 minutes and the four-year-old has been banished to her room until she is done crying. I refuse to listen to her bawl because of a fork.  And I will NOT get her a "new" one.

You see, I struggle with the "pick your battle" on this one, because all of this could have been avoided by simply getting her a new fork in the beginning.  But I stand by my decision.  The fork was fine.  She doesn't need a new one and she is NOT THE CENTER OF THE DAMN UNIVERSE and needs to learn it.

I will pick the battles that teach our kids not to behave like horrible, bratty, "gotta-have-its."  That is not life. Hard lessons now, to hopefully save their teachers and bosses later.  This is not the first time I have battled with her over simple little issues.  Remember the orange?

Some adults whine and cry and throw fits when they don't get their way.  Ours won't.  And if by some chance they do, I will have this blog post as proof that I did not allow them to act that way when they were 4.

4 year old is currently eating her spicy chicken nuggets and salad.  I win.  And since I'm almost 9 months pregnant and can't have wine, I foresee a very large piece of pie in my future.