The Best Years of My Life?

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

My three month old spent a lot of time screaming at me yesterday and today. SubhanAllah, it's a lot of work having two small children at home! My husband actually refused to let me leave both of them with him when I had to be away for a more than a couple hours yesterday. It was either the pre-schooler or the baby...I pumped two bottles and left the baby with him.

I'm trying to take it humorously, inshaAllah. I know that it's tough and he's definately not the kind of guy to take over a mothering role, hehe. Our three year old is a bundle of energy, too, subhanAllah wa mashaAllah...always running around (literally, she runs around the kitchen table with a backpack), dancing, singing, coloring, telling stories, etc. Pwah.....she can be hard to handle at times. She's also been a bit defiant lately, subhanAllah, so she gets a lot of time-outs..for things like drawing on the walls, purposely spilling things on the floor, etc...

The baby has been a little fussy the last few days, but she's not sick, alhamdulillah, so I expect that'll be short lived, inshaAllah. She's usually that sweetest little thing, mashaAllah and always smiling and happy, mashaAllah.

May Allah ta'ala protect them both and guide them on the straight path. Ameen. May Allah ta'ala make my children better than their parents. Ameen.

As hard as it is (keeping a clean and tidy home, cooking while the baby is crying, making sure everyone is clean and dressed appropriately, keeping myself looking good, taking care of my husband, etc.), I really believe that these are the best years of my life. Raising my babies. Watching them grow. Teaching them.

All of the little things. The firsts. Rolling over, first words, crawling, walking....running!

And I've taught Jayjay to ride her bike, she knows her alphabet and is starting to read and write, mashaAllah, which takes a lot of effort not only on her part, but on mine. And she's learned how to shower herself (with supervision), dress herself, and she takes care of her things (more or less), mashaAllah. She is learning the shorter surahs and she loves to sing to anasheed, mashaAllah. She's going to go sledding for the first time this winter, inshaAllah!

It's amazing how fast it goes. And I'm really trying to keep up, inshaAllah.

But all in all, it's amazing. I don't know if it gets any better than this? And if it doesn't, I'm satisfied. I have enough. It's enough for me to know that my baby is growing up into a happy, well-adjusted little girl and inshaAllah her sister will follow in her footsteps (minus the drawing on the walls, inshaAllah....). She has everything that I wanted to give my children that I didn't have for myself, mashaAllah...and not much of that falls into the category of "material wants".

InshaAllah I'll be able to keep up and nurture the relationship I have with my children. InshaAllah I'll always be able to give to them to the best of my ability. InshaAllah I will always put my family first in the dunya. InshaAllah we will grow stronger together.

Fi aman Allah,

Katherine