Phases

When we went to have lunch with David yesterday I was talking to one of his coworkers about kids and phases. She was saying that her son used to eat everything and now he is such a picky eater. I reassured her that it was probably just a phase and that he'd probably become a good eater again and that got us to the topic of "phases" being equally frustrating and reassuring. Her son also used to be a good sleeper and now she's wondering if she'll ever get a good night's sleep again. Boy can I relate with wondering if you'll feel rested again. It took Ayden almost 2 years to get through that phase and even then it was with a lot of help from us...  We were saying that phases are frustrating because we know the kids have the ability to do "better" since we've seen them do it before and how at the same phases are reassuring because we know the better behaviors will come back around again.  It gives us some hope to cling to.

I am so happy to report that the past three days have been amazing with Ayden.  He has not been hitting us, he hasn't been trying to dump his toys on Maverick and he has been doing *better* about chasing the chickens with various toys (golf clubs, baseball bats, lacross sticks, regular sticks, etc.).  He has been responding much better when we give him preemptive warnings when we see him choosing to play with these objects.  Before we'd say, "Remember, that is for hitting balls" to which he'd reply, "No, it's for chasing chickens."  Little stinker...  Now he'll say, "I not chase chickens" or something similar. Tonight he did not resist a single step in his bedtime routine. He even raised his hips up so I could put on his nighttime diaper.  It was such an AMAZING breath of fresh air.

Granted, he has not come through this phase all on his own and not even to completion.  We have been working hard ourselves with staying consistent with phrases and consequences as well as helping him find more appropriate ways to channel his emotions or initiate interactions with the animals.  Even so, we seem to be on the down slope of this phase and are beginning to brace ourselves for the next.  I recently read a Huffington Post article about "The Agony And The Ecstacy Of Raising A Toddler" and it was pretty funny.  It's crazy how one minute you can be at your whits end, wanting to pull your hair out, and the next you are gazing at the miracle that is your child and wondering how you could ever be so lucky.

My world!

The fun part is that none of us are alone in this.  Every parent of every toddler anywhere in the world has this same feelings and it is exactly as it should be.  Someday, when we have more free time than we know what to do with and couldn't be more rested if we tried, we are so going to miss them being little!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "5 Happy Things: Joy Filled Life"

And two years ago today: "Transitions"

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