Cathedrals of great character

I just read an email that compared child-rearing to building great cathedrals. The gist of the comparison is that the cathedral builders were so dedicated that they spent their lives doing this work that they never saw finished and never got credit for. They also may have put detail into the cathedral that would never be seen by anyone but God. The idea is that if no one,(including of course your child) recognizes the hard work you do as a parent, God does! And, for Him we are building, brick upon brick (spill after spill, time out after time out, wiping noses and bottoms) "cathedrals" of character in these little people that our pastor likes to call "crumb crunchers." Well the email was very timely as I often do feel completely invisible to my children except for my role as the all-too-frequent mediator between the boys, or as swing pusher or cook or chamber maid etc. So putting all this touching serious stuff aside, I looked at the "cathedral-building" of the last week. Scott's last post explored one of the messes we've had to endure while building this "cathedral" called Cooper. Well, unfortunately that was not by any means an isolated incidence. That same day, as a matter of fact, Cathedral de Cooper decided to help me clean the walls, mirror and floor in the bathroom. This would have been a wonderful idea if he hadn't left a huge puddle on the bathroom floor which could only be mopped up using at least 3 bath towels. Cathedral de Cooper never stops getting into things!!!!!!! There's my purse which almost daily gets dumped even though it's usually kept up out of reach. There's also the dozen pair of underwear that he puts on throughout the day even though I now have the underwear in his closet with the child-proof door knob. There are whole containers of fish food that are disappearing into the tank in the blink of an eye. Seriously this fish food incident happened today and we were outside during Coleman's nap. I was cleaning out the car and I had just turned off the vacuum when I heard Cooper crying because he flew down the slide faster than he realized it would go (wet slide and slippery swimsuit). On my way to the backyard (mind you, I had been at one end of the driveway and the swing set and slide are in full view at the other end of the driveway) I stopped to lecture Tradd on the topic of complaining. I literally bent down and looked Tradd in the face for no more than 30 seconds tops, and when I looked up to resume my walk to Cooper at the slide, he was no longer there and I couldn't hear his crying anymore. Well, where do you think he went? What could have been running through his mind? "I hurt myself and want to get my blankie." "I hurt myself and I want some food to comfort me." "I hurt myself and I want my mom to comfort me." No, I'm pretty sure this is what was on his mind; "I hurt myself on the slide and the only thing that will console me is if I go in the house and dump the whole container of fish food in the tank and wake my sister up in the process of pulling the chair over to the aquarium!!!!!!!" There can be no other explanation for what he might have been thinking at that time because in way less than 2 minutes that is in fact the scenario of what happened.
Well, I've gone on for quite a bit now. You can imagine that I either have Cooper tied up somewhere while I write this or he is napping. Today, I actually have all 3 kids down at one time. I've become so insane from Cooper's 2 y.o. antics that I think I was afraid to lay down for fear of what he might do if he wakes up before I do and I don't hear him. Well, that's my story about building cathedrals. While I thought that was a touching analogy, it certainly doesn't seem like any great "Cathedral" could come of the last 6 months of spills and messes, mud pies and wiping his own bottom. I should also say that Tradd went through this stage with the same messes and silliness and he's now just more verbally inquisitive. And, Coleman the princess, is as cuddly as they come. It's a good thing she's holding her own bottle now because feedings used to get interrupted by my having to get up and get Cooper on the right track.
Time for more cathedral building! They're awake.