The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and Grace

With babies (and I'm assuming kids, too, but right now I have a baby) you daily encounter what I've termed, "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and Grace".

The Good:
There is so much good to motherhood that I won't be able to list it all here. But some of my recent Good is:

• ~ baby coos
• ~ baby screams (even if you might have to get hearing aids before you're 50)
• ~ baby giggles and laughs
• ~ baby smiles (even in the wee hours of the morning when you are stumbling around with one eye half open; seeing that smile, directed totally at you is more than words)
• ~ baby chats, especially when he just has SO MUCH to say
• ~ tickling baby
• ~ rough-housing baby
• ~ watching hubby and baby rough-housing and laughing and making too much noise :)
• ~ swaying with baby in the snugli or moby until he falls asleep or is just really, really chill
• ~ seeing things brand new through baby's eyes
• ~ rocking and singing and praying and reading (and baby talking through all of it so that you can hardly get a word in edgewise)(but sometimes he's really calm and lays his head against me and snuggles in....... ahhhhhhhh)
• ~ baby expressions that are endless in their variety
• ~ new baby things, like playing with his hair and scratching textured fabrics and reaching and picking up stuff
• ~ that beautiful sleeping baby face 
• ~ seeing HOW EXCITED baby is over cell phones and remotes
• ~ getting together with other moms and babies and realizing that you're doing a great job

The Bad:

Or otherwise titled, The Unpleasant, Tedious, and Gross:

• ~ baby sneezes - before I had a baby, it would have never, ever been okay for someone to sneeze on me 
• ~ baby spit-up - all over baby, all over you, all down the inside of your shirt, all over everything in a 3 foot radius
• ~ baby poop blow-outs and the clean-up afterwards
• ~ singing another silly song, yet again, to get baby to stop fussing and crying while getting dressed
• ~ playing with the same baby toys over and over
• ~ staying inside all day because of the wintry weather
• ~ doing laundry day in and day out
• ~ changing clothes 20 times a day

The Ugly:

The ugly is me. My selfish heart that wants baby to not cry and just nap because I want to [fill in the blank]. The times when I put my needs before his. The moments when I lose my cool. And when I expect him to be something he is not. 

But through it all, there is Grace:

Grace came through Jesus, and out of His fullness we have received grace. Each day, through the ups and downs, through the good, the bad, and the ugly, I see and experience grace.