Best Friend Status

Isaac has been my best friend for a long, long time. I don't think we've ever had as much fun as we did last summer. Ahh, memories. Eating breakfast with Daddy. Going on a run to the zoo. Exploring at the zoo... lunch (sometimes with Daddy!), taking a long nap... waking up and playing with Daddy, eating together. Going on family adventures. Those were the days.

And then we got Lucy. I'm just blown away by Isaac's changes in the last few months. He has gotten to be such a great little communicator, but I am also so discouraged by the naughtiness that comes out of his mouth. You know how you get so excited to hear what your little kids will say? About 80% of the time, Isaac uses an angry or whiny voice, protesting against everything we do. Potty training really brought this out in him. This video illustrates what I'm dealing with. In it, I'm trying to celebrate Lucy's new accomplishment: the little girl can army crawl! But Isaac wants to be the focus of my attention, and is annoyed that the camera is pointed at Lucy. Charming.



I try to help Isaac be sweet. If he picks a flower, I ask if it's for me. The answer: "No! It's MY flower!" How sweet.

Or I pepper him with kisses and tell him how much I love him. And, you guessed it. I get this for my efforts: "No kissing, Mommy!"

Of course, we've still got the tenderest moments imaginable. He lets me kiss him about 7,000 times a day without saying anything. And he'll lean in to the kisses. And he'll sometimes kiss me back.

And he cuddles in my lap for story time, and in my arms when I sing him songs before rests.

There's the moment last night when I plucked him out of his high chair and raced him outside in his underwear so he could see the gorgeous double rainbow outside with me. And racing with him in the grass at the playground as he chants, "Who's the cat? Who's the cat?" (from Madagascar.)

I'm crazy about this kid, and I feel like we could have our old, great relationship if HE would just be a minder. So I want him to change, which is a problem. I need a change of heart and an extra dose of patience every day. I try different approaches to discipline and don't get a lot of success. I try not to compare myself with other moms.

And I try to be a great mom to Lucy, even though Child #1 demands as much attention as I can humanly give.

I'll leave you with proof of why you're grateful you aren't me. It's a true story about a nightmarish five minutes in my life:

Once upon a time, this afternoon, Lucy woke up from her nap. Isaac let me know she was awake and demanded to get into her crib. I let him. Lucy was fussy so I picked her up and put her on her changing table with her paci in her mouth. Isaac reached over and took the paci out. I told him that was unkind and I put the paci back in. Isaac screeched an angry screech and said something angry about not wanting Lucy to suck on her paci. I took Isaac out of the crib and said he couldn't stay in there because he was being unkind. He went over to the curtains and pulled down the dark blue blanket I'd draped over the curtains to keep out light. He knows he isn't allowed to do that. I told him he needed to go to Time Out because he did something he was not supposed to do. He yelled, paused for a moment, and slowly hit me. Another huge no-no I haven't had to deal with in a long time. I took him to Time Out and let him know that if he need to "make poo-poos," he needed to call out and let me know. A minute later, he called out that he needed to make poo-poos. Thinking he'd figured out how to get out of time out, I approached his room and heard him say, "I made poo-poos." I opened the door and saw a puddle of pee on the carpet and an unrepentant, drenched little boy who had peed on himself and his dinosaur underwear. I wiped him up in the bathroom, put Diego pull-ups on him and sent him back to his room for the longest Time Out of his life. (It was about 10 minutes long and I enjoyed it immensely:).)