When you have a boy, you’ll find underwear hanging off the dining room chandelier, and a crocodile suspended off the light switch by its rubbery tail.
You’ll find dragons posed on the peaks of LEGO towers like miniature gargoyles and scribbled pictures of blue whales and black monsters littered across the floor.
You’ll find a boisterous superhero running circles around your couch who dives headlong into a pile of freshly overturned pillows and blankets only to come up with tears springing in his eyes from a too hard landing.
You’ll find cars and plastic dinosaurs vaulting down park slides and a gleaming smile over the smallest hint of pizza.
You’ll find poop and giggles and farts and sweet smiles and perfect cuddles and 45-minute-long hugs.
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When you have a girl, you’ll find the terrifying vision of a teething baby gumming her brother’s Hot Wheels.
You’ll find her standing behind you humming, swaying, and patting a plastic gorilla as if it were the most precious baby in the world.
You’ll find her squeezing and hugging and kissing every stuffed animal in your house with a fearless desire to do the same to every neighbor’s dog you pass outside.
You’ll find scribbled swirls of purple and blue on your walls and pink and gray socks strewn across your floors.
You’ll find an incessant persistence to read the same book 50 times in a row, and a fierce determination to watch Moana more than any other human alive.
You’ll find strawberry yogurt granola bars smooshed in your couch and half a tube of lip gloss washed down her gullet.
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When you have a boy and a girl, you’ll find the same chaos and impulsive sweetness measured in varying degrees.
You’ll wipe tears from round eyes and tickle bellies bursting with laughter.
You’ll adore every inch of their unique personalities, knowing without a doubt the world desperately needs both of them.
Understanding fully there is nothing greater or lesser in either of them.
Believing with every fiber of your being there is a place for each of them.
Neither one has anything innately wrong, lacking, or missing because of their sex.
They are both kind.
They are both mischevious.
They are both jubilant.
They both make mistakes, and they both bridge gaps you never knew your family held.
My boy and girl, you are so incredibly loved, valued, and needed.
Never doubt it.
Previously published on the author’s Facebook page
Parenting is a wild ride, but the strategies in Mindful Parenting in a Chaotic World have made it a little smoother for us! Too busy to sit and read? You can listen here, on Audible.
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