Friday, June 05, 2009

Patience Is a Virtue

Lately Justin has been trying my patience. I don't know what it is with him. I know that he has had a cold for the past couple of weeks, but I am starting not to be so sympathetic about that anymore. He can be SO obnoxious. I find myself sometimes hoping that he has a horrible ear infection or is in a great deal of pain because that would explain WHY he has been so hard to deal with. I don't want it to be a long lasting phase. I don't want my child to be a brat. I am trying to have patience and to make sure I spend quality time with him to minimize the jealousy he feels towards Tiny. He can be such a psycho Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde. Charming and sweet one minute, spawn of the devil monster the next. It drives me crazy! I never know what Justin I will see!

Today he had a meltdown when we had to come inside. I have a rule that if he runs away from me, we have to come in. I can't chase after him very well when I have Tiny and it is basic safety that I trust he will come when I call him and not run off in the opposite direction. He thought he was being funny until I dragged him home kicking and screaming. I have discovered that when I start to video him, Justin calms down a bit. Guess he doesn't like to have a record of his misbehavior. Of course he doesn't cooperate doing cute things for me either...

After we had time to settle down from that incident, I asked him if he would like to make cookies with me. We had a pretty good time. Luckily, they weren't the best cookies ever because we could never duplicate the recipe exactly. The recipe called for 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar, I fill up a 1 cup measuring cup almost full and Justin gets most of it in the bowl. We needed two eggs, Justin got about 1 1/4 into the bowl so we added another. The whole process was kind of like that. He had a fun time though. He loves helping in the kitchen. I don't mind if I have the time. It can take me longer to reheat leftovers than to make the original meal when I have my helper.





Yesterday Tiny sat independently. He may have done it before, but this time it was long enough that I can say it officially. Before I never knew if he needed to be more upright, sit for a longer time period, catch himself and sit back up if he started leaning... Poor Ryan doesn't get a lot of time to practice though. So often I am protecting him from his overzealous brother. Justin wants to wrestle and play rough with Ryan, and Ryan would like nothing better. Justin does not get that Tiny isn't physically able to do that. When Tiny hits or kicks Justin, Justin gets mad at him and retaliates. Seems intentional to him I guess.

The playground is closed through the 14th of June because they are going to take out some of the old equipment and put in some new things. It is going to be a loooooooooong ten days. We usually spend quite a bit of time out there every day. The slide and the see saw are going to be replaced with newer, safer ones. The "bus" is going to be replaced with something else. It will be hard to beat the bus for fun. All the kids loved it.
I do love the way my boys laugh together and at each other. I love seeing how Justin goes from being totally clueless about a puzzle to doing it independently. I like trying to figure out his rules for Twister. I love Justin's big hugs and Tiny's smiles and squeals. I am amazed each day at how quickly Ryan is growing. He is my ravenous beast. He loves rice cereal and tolerates green beans, peas, carrots, and squash. He likes bananas and absolutely devours mashed potatoes. I don't remember Justin enjoying solids so much. It is hard to keep food away from Tiny.