children

I'm sitting here with my baby girl wrapped around me, sound asleep, snuggled on my chest. I'm not gonna lie- I could do this until she is 20. I have a new baby carrier, a 'cocoon wrap', courtesy of Jodi, and while I was initially VERY apprehensive and intimidated, it's safe to say that I LOVE it. And I might as well admit it here, I lost my second baby sling, the same way I lost my first... at the grocery store. I either left it in the cart or it fell off of Cate's car seat as I was putting her in the van. Regardless, I'm quite upset about it and now have to purchase my THIRD. I use it way too often to simply do without. While I do love my new wrap, I love the quickness and ease of the sling. I'm officially addicted to wearing my baby. And it's safe to say that the feeling in mutual: my baby loves to be worn. She'll start to fuss, I strap her on, and instantly- she's calm. Enough sling talk..

As I said when I started this, I'm sitting here with Cate strapped on me. What I didn't say was that I'm also listening to the pitterpatter of little feet above my head, mixed with random words, shouts of excitement, furniture sliding... What?! Oh yes indeed. Today is day number one of attempting to get my little boy to sleep in his 'big boy' bed. I just went to check on him and this picture is what I saw. Who needs toys?! He emptied out a box of ziplock baggies, pulled clothes out of his drawer.. and proceeded to shut the door in my face as I opened the gate to put him back in bed.

This is going to be much more difficult than I anticipated.

He's been up there for nearly an hour and is having a ball. We have NO toys in his room, only one book, and he's having a grand ole time. What's a Mom to do? What I really want to know though... is where the time went. One year ago, just twelve months!, that little boy was learning how to crawl. And now.. he's speaking in sentences, has SO much personality, loves to make you laugh, also loves to tell you no. He's learning so much and doing new things every day. There's nothing he won't try and climb. There's nothing that he won't throw. There's not a ball that goes unnoticed. He loves to 'pway' with his friends, look at books, and 'shoot it!', which is the most commong phrase heard in our house. We picked up a little basketball ball goal at a garage sale on Saturday, and have easily gotten the $5 worth out of it.

He really is an incredible little boy, and I need to remind myself of those things often- that he is incredible, and that he is a little boy. We're having some crazy discipline issues and I feel like I'm in way over my head, that I don't have a clue in the world on how to handle this aspect of mothering. At our Mommy's play group we have every Monday (which I love and cherish!), I was talking with my friend Wendy and she was talking about the difference between training a child to be obedient, and simply punishing. Really got my wheels turning, and I feel like I have such a long way to go! I wish you got a practice run before you were molding and shaping someone's life- haha. I've had a (big) handful of people recommend a book to me (Shephearding a Child's Heart), and I think I'm going to buy it this week. I know a book is not a solve-all, but I think it will be a good thing.

I just saw that Corban colored all over my door frame and refrigerator with a brown crayon. He's still moving things and shouting for joy up in his bedroom. I know he feels like he's got the keys to the world, being in there unsupervised and all, and I just feel a little overwhelmed at the moment. Anyway, I'm off to try, yet again, to get him to stay in his bed. I do know this- he will not be in a crib when he turns 16. We'll get it figured out. I can always put Cate in the pack-n-play until Corban's out of his crib. I need to cherish these days, I know, because they're gone too soon. Okay. Deep breath. Hear I go...