Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sweet spot

You know how sometimes your kids are just behaving wonderfully, there are no major meltdowns or "issues" and you are just thinking--This is just great! Easy, even. We are in a good space. I could maybe even have another kid and it would be not that big of a deal! Well, life has not been like that lately in our house. I haven't really been blogging because at the end of the day I am worn out emotionally and I have nothing nice to write.

But, it is one of my parenting philosophies to find the good in every day. Find a moment or two that lift you up, that make you smile, that remind you how very lucky you are. My don't sweat the small stuff moments, because really things could be so much worse. So my favorite moments lately involve soaking in those smiles. The big smiles, the laughing ones--not the cheese for the camera smiles. Lana has a perfect symmetrical smile--those little white teeth in a perfect row. I love her smile and I may be a little sad when she starts losing the baby teeth. Lacey's smile involves dimples--one under her bottom lip, to the right, one on her cheek. She also giggles when she smiles sometimes. Love it.

Lana asks me everyday when Lacey will be able to follow directions and play pretend with her. I tell her soon--a few more months-- because I think 2.5 is one of those sweet spots, where they are not babies anymore. Today after school Lana wanted to play swimming, so she put on her swimsuit and jumped onto my bed to "swim". Lacey then asked for a swimsuit, plopped down on her belly and said, "sploosh, splash, sploosh, splash." We are so close Lana!!

I am also really loving the interaction between the girls. Okay, 85% of the time Lana is screaming, "NO LACEY! MOM she is _____". I know this is normal, but sheesh. Lacey just loves Lana, will do anything to get her attention and just wants to be like her. Lana is usually annoyed, but lately she has been showing sweetness to Lacey. This morning they both climbed into Lacey's crib and cuddled. Lacey was loving it. I almost passed out it was so cute.

So even though we are decidedly going through a rough patch with behavior and with parenting (I have not been winning any awards for patience lately), there are these little nuggets of sweetness--the ones that pull me out of my bad mood and make me so very grateful.

3 comments:

LauraC said...

I don't know if it would make you feel better or worse that both my boys are 5.5 and their fighting is out of control right now. Jon actually described it last night as them being the "perfect fightmates." We get a lot of "MOM! He is..." blah blah blah.

But still tons of cuteness.

Beth said...

You rock. And your sweet moments are sooo sweet. I've been trying to start a "What I loved about today" moment each night, where we each say what we loved about today. So far, I'm the only one coming up with something, but maybe if I stick to it, the boys will start participating. :-)

DesiDVM said...

We stole the "roses and thorns" thing from the Obamas (I think I saw them describe this on Oprah or something LOL). Every day we go around and do our "roses" (favorite things from the day) and "thorns" (least favorite things from the day). J will not let us end a day without it. It's funny how many times his rose is playing with his little brother, even when it feels to me like they've been fighting all day long. And he has yet to ever say anything about his lil bro as a thorn. So they love each other :)

And you're not alone, J's behavior lately has been ridiculous. It's like the terrible 2's all over again with the 5-year-old tantrums, whining, defiance, and fighting! Please say this phase ends soon.