Parenting wisdom-This too shall pass

I've been a parent for 3 1/2 years now and I have acquired some wisdom over the course of that time period that I'd like to share. I'm sure my wisdom (well, I hope) will grow in the coming years, but I wanted to explain a bit about it now. I'm going to write out my current list, in no particular order, and chip away at them one at a time for a few posts when I don't have pictures or other stories about the kids over the next few weeks. Anyway, here goes.

1) This too shall pass. This is a saying I learned from Dennis Prager who said it's from King Solomon. With kids, things change so quickly. It's hard to remember that when it seems like you've gone for weeks without things improving, but before you know it, the kids reach a developmental milestone or something just clicks and they're over whatever challenge you were facing and on to another. Like I remember when Abby was horribly difficult to get down for a nap and bedtime. It seemed like I would spend sometimes 30 minutes or even 1.5 hours rocking, patting, holding her and bouncing and she would just scream. And this happened for every nap and every bedtime. And the boys would be going crazy in the hallway outside her door. And I would cry. And my wrists hurt from all the patting and my knees ached from marching around her room and bouncing around. But guess what her nap and bedtime routines are now? Naptime: take her upstairs, change her diaper, put her in her blanket sleeper, pat for 5 seconds and put her in her crib--awake--she does the rest. Total time: 2 minutes. Bedtime: go to her room, walk around saying "night night" to her pictures and stuffed animals. Read story and bedtime prayer. Change into PJs and blanket sleeper, pat for maybe 30 seconds and into her crib. Total time: 7 minutes. So this too shall pass. Now I don't get to spend as much time with Abby preparing her for bed, but I sure enjoy the time we do have together.

You don't have to look too far back in our recent history to know that Sam has been a challenge at bedtime too. Just look at posts from a year ago or so. I remember reading my book in low light just outside Sam's bedroom door so when he peeked outside or tried to come out (for the 20th time of the night) I was right there to redirect (for some reason he would skitter back into his room if a parent was right outside). And I remember sitting there for an hour and getting maybe 10 pages read in my low light. And sending him back again and again and again to his bed. Now we rarely have a problem with him. We have our routine and he can keep his light on and read for awhile if he likes and he happily entertains himself until he falls asleep. This too shall pass. It's the nature of kids.

Here are my other bits of wisdom:
2) Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
3) Love your spouse.
4) Have reasonable expectations.
5) You can't (and shouldn't) make your kids happy all the time.
6) Keep up your own hobbies/interests/diversions (to a certain extent).

I know there are other floating around in my head, but remember things these days isn't a great strength of mine, so I may add or amend others down the road. I'll explain more about the other items in future posts.