There is no manual for parenting because children teach you how to parent them.
I am continually learning this lesson. This weekend was the first weekend in a while where I’ve been INTENTIONALLY present with The Kid and her antics. I’ve eaten rosary bean soup, several food truck “tachos” and spent more time than I’d like to walking up and down the stairs. All of those actions have shown me facets of my child’s personality I hadn’t paid attention to before.
She’s funny. She cracks jokes. Writing this post makes me giggle thinking about it. She cracks jokes on my husband, whenever he’s talking, she’ll make a loud noise and interrupt him and finds it hilarious. So do I. The Husband, not so much.
She surprises me with the knowledge she holds. We were driving home from the grocery store Saturday night and she, matter of fact-ly, states ‘mama, moon’. So, Mama is driving down the street like a crazy person trying to see the moon. And share in that wonder with her.
She’s grown so much. Physically and as a person. She expresses such a range of emotion. It breaks my heart into 1000 pieces when she frowns and gets in the bed. The moments where I have to interrupt her sneak play time (the time when she chooses to get out of her bed and play instead of going to bed) and the look of shock and how she’ll put down whatever she’s playing with and get in her bed. AND THEN CRY! And I’ve not said a word. She just knows.
Parenting is it’s own classroom.
She’s curious. I’ve discussed the new inability to use the bathroom in privacy. I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon as we are going to be crossing into potty training territory next month. But this weekend she did sit on the potty and had an idea of how it worked but didn’t produce. It’s a start.
She knows who her parents are and the things that belong to them. She put on a pair of my husband’s shoes (of which he has very many, maybe a post on that later. “The Wife of a Sneaker Fiend”). One shoe was the right way and the other shoe was the other way and as tickled as I was, I also immediately grabbed a pair of shoes that Dad-Dad would be a little less upset with her crinkling.
She’s my shadow. I can be impatient with her at times but other times I’ll stop mid tracks, she’ll bump into me and fall onto her bottom. That’s my own personal mommy humor.
She’s showing me how to be a parent because I’m not quite sure what my expectations were of becoming a parent, but none of those thoughts matter when I slow down and I’m fully present with all of her magnificent being.
Everyone:
What’s something the children in your life have taught you?
Dassit,
Lina
