Bottle of Joy

I wish there was a way to bottle up all the sweet times I have with the boys and pull them out when they are driving me nuts. I just put baby Blake-a-do to bed, who is not quite a baby anymore. After laying him down once for him to protest after 5 minutes, I went back up to console the tired little guy. Rocking with him was so sweet and fun. We rubbed noses and smiled and laughed. He persistently tried to stick his finger in my mouth and found it funny when I would "bite" it. I know I need to cherish these times. My oldest, now 4 has already outgrown rocking before bed. And as I sit with my "baby" I know I will miss these days.  Right now it seems they will always be here and my frustrations will always be little temper tantrums when the boys don't get their way. But I know that the temper tantrums will give way to arguments about staying up late and why pulling your brother along on a skateboard while you are biking is not only a terrible idea, it's very dangerous. I know I will still have sweet times with my boys, but they just won't be the same. So whenever I can I try to make mental notes of these times in my brain and bottle them up so I have them forever. I would especially like to pull these times out of my mind when the boys are being particularly rotten. It's so hard being a parent and dealing with adult stress and not throwing a temper tantrum yourself, to then have your 20 month old not only pulling all the cereals out of the cupboards but dumping them all over the floor too and then screaming when you pick him up to take him into the other room, while your 4 year old is in the other room screaming and crying because Thomas keeps falling off the track because he is trying to get 10 trains around the track at once. It is these times that I really need to pull out my bottles of joy so I can remind myself to stay calm, not yell, and remember there are sweet little things somewhere in there.