1 - no matter what happens, if you do not need to be up early, the kids will bounce into your room starting at 6 am, but if you need to be somewhere at any point in the morning, you will have to drag at least one (if not both) of your children out of bed.
2-kids generally repeat what they see, and very rarely do as they are told. If what they see modeled for them is contradictory to what they are told, they will copycat what they see. My kids have good manners and short tempers. At least it helps me identify my own bad habits.
3-I can survive, and even function fairly well on no sleep.
4-as your family grows, love multiplies for all its members, including the new one. It's quite a miracle.
5 - if I have a kid who is super grumpy, it is probably hunger. If feeding doesn't work, the bathtub probably will. If not, call a grandparent, that's what they are for.
6 - if my kid eats a diet of only fruit snacks, grapes, Mac n cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, string cheese, and drinks instant breakfast, I can make it all better by making sure he takes his gummy vitamins at bedtime. I would have balked at that entire sentence about 5 years ago, now I LIVE IT!
7 - no matter what the parenting books or other people say, there is nothing that can beat a mom's intuition. The times as a parent I questioned my intuition, and followed something else, things didn't go quite right.
8 - the more time I spend with my kids, the more I want to spend time with them. The less time I spend with them, the less patience I have.
9 - potty training happens when it happens. The more stressed out everybody gets about it, the harder it is.
10 - kids grow up too fast.
