My son the flirt

Less interested in the treats, more interested in flirting.  OY!  I am in trouble.

You've come a long way

Dear Isaac

Dear Isaac,

(Or Samson as I may start calling you because of your freakish strength and screams this morning when I tried to trim your hair)

It is amazing to me that you are 29 months today.

Oh, the places you have been and the places you have yet to go.

As I watch you grow, and more about your personality and spirit is uncovered, I am even more a believer that our traits are predetermined and neutral in nature. We (and others) are the ones who assign those traits positive or negative meaning, but as you mature, only you can choose how to direct your behavior using those characteristics.

Your stubbornness, or strength of conviction, is not a trait that needs to be broken as others believe, but instead can be a gift that if channeled towards positive goals will be an important life skill.

Your knack for getting into everything, or your inquisitive nature, can lead to you uncovering many unanswered questions if you realize the power of developing this ability and using it to find answers that help the common good.

Your melt-downs, or sensitivity and true connection to your feelings, can foster more empathy and understanding about others and aid you in building positive relationships. (And believe me, your planned ‘performances’ just for the comedy do not go unnoticed by me, and will help you diffuse many uncomfortable situations.)

So as your grandparents, aunts, uncles and strangers give me the stink eye when they witness you falling to the floor with emotion, saying ‘no’ on occasion to establish some authority in your own life, wearing a gold lame jacket to school with two different shoes, getting pretty pissed when I tell you ‘no’, and questioning me starting you on time-outs at 16 months, I need to remind myself that they all have amnesia of once being or having a child behaving the same way even though they will surely deny it and continue to judge me no matter what I do.

No worries, my son, I will take all those hits for you. (I just wish that your timing for such displays was not always when it is you and I in a large public place – Mama does still on occasion care what others think.)

I do know that we need to continue to work on learning that ‘there is a time and place for everything’, and that emotional outbursts can be thwarted and channeled into outdoor adventures or artistic pursuits as well, but hopefully one day you will thank me for not jumping on the bandwagon to rob you of your individuality and break your spirit in your second year.

Lord knows there are enough folks who will line up to do that soon enough.

Instead I hope to teach you to recognize, foster and use your talents in the most constructive ways, and instill in you that your traits are yours, none of them are negative unless you choose and use them to be, and to remember that those who give you the hardest time about them, are usually the ones who are not staying true or using their own in this way.

I love you,

Mama

 

Fork in the sand

I have been teaching Isaac to eat with a fork.

Apparently he has coupled this new skill with his sand obsession.

Today his teacher caught him outside eating a bowl full of sand with his fork.

Maybe there is some protein in sand that I am not aware of.

Only children

   

It is nice to have another friend with any only child so I can take a temporary hiatus from daydreaming about slapping other mothers around who judge you for only having one child.

Not everyone needs to be tortured by their siblings to build character.

You can have friends to do that.