What this picture doesn't show....

In this picture, I captioned what I said in the moment...when I was cuddling my baby boy and my daughter crawled up on my bed and snuggled in close. "I have both my babies with me!" It was such a sweet moment that I just had to snap a pic.

However, after uploading it to social media, I looked at this "perfect" little moment and thought...wow, this isn't a very good representation of the day.

So I thought I'd share what this picture DOESN'T show.

It doesn't show that not even an hour earlier, I had to clean up a huge poopy accident on my daughter's first day of wearing "big girl" panties. (And I didn't handle it very gracefully.)

It doesn't show that my toddler is just getting over a cold and that my one month old is currently fighting one...which scares me.

It doesn't show the hours of sleep a mom of 2 DOESN'T get.

It doesn't show that I hadn't smiled that big all day because lately I feel like a failure at everything...especially in the mom department.

And of course a picture can't show all that, but I realized as soon as I hit the share button that I'm doing what (probably) everyone else does. I shared a very brief, sweet moment of my day, and since that's all I shared with the world, that's all they see. It makes it very easy to judge and compare and assume that way.

I'm constantly comparing myself to what I think I see in the lives of others. Now I really wonder...am I comparing apples & oranges?

The reason I'm sharing this is because I thought it'd be nice if one of my seemingly perfect friends shared their true, flaw filled, stressful moments behind their brief, sweet ones. It would help me feel not so alone and not so much of a failure.

So if you're feeling down, don't feel alone. Look at this sweet picture, and then take it in knowing my day was no where near as sweet as that moment (although the moment was very sweet).

Take heart fellow friend! We both fail a little and thrive a little. It's not all picture perfect. That's ok.

What's in your heart today?