What's even harder to believe is we saw a house on Wednesday, and Thursday put in an offer that was accepted that evening! It took us MONTHS to decide on which family vehicle we would purchase, and basically 24 hours to buy a house. But when you know, you know!
And possibly the hardest thing to believe is I decided to take both children to the bank with me to discuss a mortgage. Now, I have never purchased a home, and just started to understand the terms principle and interest because of the two car payments we have recently made. Needless to say, I'm a newbie to the world of loans and bank vocabulary. But, I told Michael I would email the loan woman at Suntrust and see what information I could get as far as our options go. She promptly emailed me back this morning and suggested I come into the bank to discuss it. I warned her that I would have the kids with me and she said that's fine, I have a door we can shut if we need to. My plan was to carry Ellie in (hopefully sleeping) in her car seat carrier, and let Harper walk in and (hopefully) sit either in the chair or on the floor. As I was packing the diaper bag, I thought about what to bring to keep Harper occupied. I decided on a notebook, a pen, 2 crayons, a few books, her play money, and of course a bag of goldfish. I figured the notebook is what we would start out with, seeing as how the day before she sat so nicely in Michael's office "taking notes" during a meeting about camp.
Before we even arrived at the bank, I explained to Harper that we were going to go to the bank first, and then to Target (it is her favorite place on this earth). I explained that at the bank I needed her to sit in the chair and take notes for me like she did yesterday during daddy's meeting. I said ok? And she repeated "ok", but she repeats everything I say, so I didn't know if she really got anything I said at all. Once we got to her office, I got Harper sitting in the chair, handed her the notebook and pen, and told her I needed her to write her name and take notes. (Luckily Ellie fell asleep on the short drive over, so I didn't have to worry about her as this was her usual morning nap time). Harper wanted to set her notebook down on the desk (like mommy), so I scooted her closer to the desk to do so.
Ok, this might actually be the hardest thing of all to believe. I was there an hour, and my almost two year old never got out of that chair. Throughout the meeting I did add to her collection of things, giving her both crayons, which she eventually got stuck between the spirals of her little notebook, and the bag of goldfish, which she dropped on the floor and about 10 of them spilled out onto the floor (I picked them up without any getting crushed-a crushed goldfish is my worst nightmare), but it kept her occupied. I was able to discuss with this woman all of our options, she answered all of my questions and gave me a much better understanding of what all of the numbers mean and how she calculated them all. At the time, I just walked out of there feeling so educated, thanked the woman for helping me and went on our way.
But now, reflecting on the day, I can't believe it went as well as it did, and I am one proud momma. I am proud of Harper for sitting there and entertaining herself so that I could focus my attention on the task at hand. I am proud of Ellie for staying asleep (let's be real, she's only 3 months old and still sleeps 75% of the time, I could pretty much bank on her being asleep). And I am proud of myself for having high expectations for the behavior of my almost 2 year old.
So, still reflecting, what I have learned is: Being a mom is hard. Holding your kids accountable is hard. Not making excuses and setting those expectations high is hard. Being consistent with those expectations is hard. Setting the bar high, even when they are young is hard. After doing all of these things, sometimes, our kids will surprise us and rise up to those expectations, though, is it really that hard to believe?
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