It's Official!

Crawl Watch 2012 has officially come to a close today :). Ayden is on the move!

I finally made it to BuyBuy Baby to use our gift card for the toys I discussed in this post.

He actually enjoyed taking the pieces out! And here I thought he'd just chew on them for now...

As I was walking to checkout the ball in the video above caught my eye. It was only $3.99 and Ayden loves the mini version we play with in the pool so I grabbed it. Every little boy needs a ball collection :).

Along with that and his new love for door stoppers, his life is now complete.

I usually enjoy living in the moment but sometimes I think it is a good idea to take a step back and assess/reflect upon your life. Self reflection is the only route to self improvement and I feel this also applies to other areas of ones life. When I step back and take a moment to remember how things were a couple of weeks ago, then compare it with how things are now I am amazed. Just two weeks ago I hadn't yet had my epiphany and Ayden was teething as well as frustrated because his readiness to be on the move and his physical ability to do so were not jiving. Now, Ayden has a cute little toothy grin, is [slowly] on the move and is overall a happy and content baby again.

While living in the moment two weeks ago, I felt exhausted and frustrated a lot of the time and had to actively remind myself that I am in control of how I react to situations and of my own happiness. Now, living in the current moment, the happiness is just effortlessly here. I suppose the point that I am trying to make is that with parenting, the ease vs. struggle relationship is a constant roller coaster and we just have to go along for the ride.

Thanks to this time I've taken to reflect, hopefully during our next "rough" patch I can remember:
1) "this too shall pass" (it is a popular quote for a reason)
and
2) Ayden's cries and fussy moments have nothing to do with us or our parenting. When babies cry they are simply communicating and it is important that we, as parents, remember to believe in the language value of our babies cries and be there for them. Teething is rough, and working to achieve new milestones can be too, and babies just need us to be there to comfort and guide them. It seemed like a lot in the moment, to put life on hold to just focus on Ayden and let him be clingy but in retrospect it was such a short amount of time. I truly hope I can remember this next time, though I know it will still be tough...

All I can say is that Ayden's next couple of teeth and next milestones can take their time because we want to enjoy this little break we are getting for as long as possible.  :)

~Sarah