My Mornings & "Love You, Exclamation Point"

This summer has been hard. Of course it has. Post-partum is hard. Maternity leave is always hard. Maternity leave with two big kids at home is quite a bit harder. Texas summers are hard. Summers anywhere are probably a little hard. Having patience all the time is hard. But, every day has had so so so much wonderful. More wonderful than hard, even. It helps that I am a positive happy person most of the time. In my memories, I tend to be the happiest of people. I don't remember the bad stuff. This summer will likely stand out as unbelieveably wonderful.

As an ode to remembering the wonderful, here is a peak into my mornings with these 2.5 crazy kids. (Technically three I know, but while Ziyan is one of my kids, he sure isn't crazy.)

It starts with me sleepily asking Zahra what she wants to do today.


That's right, she wants to:

1. Drive
2. Sit in the middle
3. Be older than Zayd
4. Be born first
5. Drive

This all stems from our car conversations that we have EVERY TIME we load up the car. She wants to know why Zayd gets to sit in the middle next to Ziyan. I say because Zayd is older. Why? Because he was born first. Apparently, she has again determined that she would be better off just having her own car and driving herself places. This is definitely not the first time she has brought this up.

Also, I feel like a crazy person hearing Zayd exclaim "I love you, exclamation point". That means mommy voice texts too much. I think next week I will have to teach the kids about punctuation so they know that they don't have to say period at the end of every sentence and exclamation point at the end of exciting sentences.

Here are some photos of how we spend those early hours before we hustle out of the house and take on this city.