Rejoicing In Your Spirited Toddler

It is hard at times to remember all the positive when there seems to be a lot of negative, especially when your are shown societies expectations day in and day out and your child just does not ever meet those expectations (but that is an entire different post.) So today I thought about how much I try to just rejoice in my spirited little man and remember that the things that make him so difficult are the things that also make him so wonderful.

There is never a break with him. I can not just sit him in the living room, the kitchen, or his room and expect him to just play while I attempt things like cleaning, homework or making food. He expects me to be right there at all times, helping him learn. He will pull book after book out and point to everything asking "whats that." He grabs my hand and pulls me to his toys where we play music together. He is usually on the xylophone and I am on the drums. Or he pulls me to his little table so we can color and he will draw circles over and over while saying "circle." I attempt other shapes, but circle seems to be the easiest for him. We play head, shoulders, knees and toes often. He skips shoulders every time but is really good at knees and toes! With all this "work" we do, which is actually more like play for him, he has learned over 35 words, can point to over 10 different body parts, can make 2 animal sounds, and knows 1 shape.

So while it's easy to feel drained by bed time, and complain because I have had no down time (thank God for 2 hour naps! Even though they consist of me doing homework. And yes this is me avoiding homework right now.) So at the end of the day I try to remember how freaking smart Tristan is. At night when he is in bed and my husband and I are sitting together watching tv I am always saying "I can't believe how smart our little guy is." My husband's reply is always "because he has you for a mommy." (Insert AWWW moment here.) Jeez I just love my husband!

So here I am rejoicing in my little man, and while he pulls me to the breaking point every damn day I must say it is worth every hair pulling moment to be able to watch him learn, grow, and develop such a strong desire for knowledge!

A Poem

I wrote this poem for my Intro To Creative Writing Class and it just makes me smile so I thought I would share it because I am pretty sure a lot of moms can relate.

At first it is just a faint noise far off into the distance

of my current dream

It brings me somewhat back to reality

I am trapped between two worlds

the dream world and the real world

I continue to dream but find myself on edge

in my current state

Listening intently on what is going on around me

in the real world

But still continuously playing the dream with in my head

There...there it is

It is exactly what I was listening for

DUCK!

Duck, the first word of the day

The first of many that my 17 month old son will utter today

And I am awakened

Time to start a new day

It time to be mom

or mommy

or mama

or "WHAAAAAAAA"

Depending on what mood he wakes up in today.

But I think today will be a good day

How can I tell you ask?

Because DUCK means a good day

and when given the choice of

duck or "WHAAAAAA"

I will take duck any day.