I’d like to think that when my kids are grown and gone I will remember the good times, and not the bad.

I’d like to think that I’ll remember our family vacations, holidays, and reading stories to them at bedtime, instead of the near constant fighting that can be life with littles. 

I’m not saying we live a bad life, we live an awesome blessed life, but still there are three kids 6 and under so life is messy and loud.

I hope (like crossing my fingers) I forget the yelling, the almost constant whining, and how freaking long it takes them to put their shoes on (no anger there).

I hope I forget how stressful it is to take them to church, how much some of them dislike vegetables, and how they fight over everything… no really every.single.thing.

We had a moment this week that I hope I remember a little bit differently in 20 years.

I started to put out the Christmas decorations the other day.

The nativity has always been a favorite “kid decoration”… good thing it’s really durable, so it was one of the first things out.

Anyway, I put out the nativity, and the little kids flocked to it. It’s a house with “guys”, it’s basically the dream toy for AsthmaMan and the Princess.

This seemed great, it seemed like they were destined to play nicely and get along.

No.

The Princess has started a new thing where she SCREAMS when she doesn’t get her way.

She’s the youngest and 1 so she doesn’t get her way…. 80% of the time.

AsthmaMan wouldn’t let her have the Baby Jesus so she SCREAMED at the top of her little lungs.

She pushed him, he pushed back, she hit him, he hit her…. you get the idea.

At one point Baby Jesus was thrown across the room… remember how this nativity isn’t breakable… yeah it actually is.

This is AsthmaMan and the Princess 24/7.

I’m hoping that I just remember the 15 seconds that they got along and were happy, and not the 25 minutes where this happened.

I hope I remember their excitement over Christmas, their cute voices singing Christmas songs, and how much they wanted to be together.

But…

I also want to be realistic, I want to remember that life with littles is complicated, and messy, and a learning experience every day.

I want to laugh with my kids about the things they used to go ballistic over.

I want to show their kids these pictures some day, and we can all have a good laugh at how ridiculous some of these meltdowns were.

I took pictures of both sides of the experience, when the actual memory has faded to a rose colored version of itself, I’ll have the photo to remind me.