Warning: naughty language ahead.

It’s hard work being a parent. You sacrifice your time, money and even a bit of your sanity at times.

You dedicate all your energy and resources into taking care of this little person without so much as a thank you. (Hopefully, your kids will thank you someday, but that’s likely not for a very long time.)

So how do we survive it all? The trick is to find the joy in the unexpected places. Those little moments, where they make you smile. That day, maybe a week (or several months) after the “vomit incident” when you can finally look back and chuckle about it.

Remember to keep your sense of humor, and try to have a little fun with the crazy ups and downs of parenting and rearing a child. After all, these days won’t go on forever.

Chris Illuminati has been getting a lot of attention lately, and rightly so. He is a stay-at-home dad who like many of us, is trying to find his way through the intimidating, and often overwhelming task of being a parent.

He does this by chronicling his daily ups-and-downs taking care of his young son and new baby via post-it notes. The Post-its are hilarious, and often tongue-in-cheek notes, which he leaves all over the house and photographs for his blog: Message With a Bottle.

Here are some examples that will make you chuckle:

Visit his blog to see more of these images, and also to read the story about how he met his “permanent roommate” (aka, his wifey).

Love elephant and want to go steady?

Sign up for our (curated) daily and weekly newsletters!

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photos: Chris Illuminati