Sunday, August 26, 2012

Thou Shall Repeat Yourself

Being a mom has turned me into a liar. I don't know how many times I've said "I'm not going to tell you again" only to repeat the direction at least one more time. I finally realized I should just ask Luke "Please don't make me ask again."

I know Lucas can hear just fine.  Sometimes he likes to pretend that he can't.  I said his name 7 times today without him paying one bit of attention to me.  He expected me to tell him not to go where he was headed and decided to ignore me.  He did the same thing when I asked him to go get his sneakers.  You would think that putting your shoes on was the hardest thing you could do, I had to asked several times, and eventually I went to get his sneakers and put them on him.

While he completely ignores me, he requires my undivided attention when he has something to say.  He does not care if I am talking to someone, or doing something, he will repeat "Mommy" and if he can reach my face he will turn it facing him, if not he will grab whatever part of me he can reach hold on until I turn to him.  What he doesn't realize is that he always has at least a part of my attention.

I'm sure I will be repeating myself for a long time to come.  "Don't jump on the couch", "Don't climb on the dog" are as much a part of our routine as "it's time to brush your teeth" and "you have to eat your vegetables if you want a popsicle".  My favorite phrase to repeat is one my mom taught me, "I love you from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky"  I say that to Luke daily and he says it back to me now, but usually gets it a little jumbled. My hope that I will repeat "I love you" more than I end up repeating "no hitting."

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Thou shall take it all in stride

My precious baby boy looked at me this week and said "Mommy, you mean."  I can't quite express how that made me feel except to say I was slightly devastated.  First, telling a toddler not to play around the toilet is not mean, second where did he learn to call people "mean", and third, why am I justifying to myself that I am not mean? I was definitely a little sad about him calling me "mean" until I told the dog to get off the couch and he repeated me instantly.

He has also learned how to perfectly imitate my most irritated-and-about-to-lose-my-temper voice. Hearing my words and tone come from him is a little shocking.  He has said "Don't talk to me like that" and "You don't tell me what to do" and it sounds just like me. The most fun part of all of this is that my dad recently expressed concern that Luke has a hearing problem.  His hearing has been checked and it is fine, he has a common condition in males - selective hearing.  Luke will admit that he heard you and chose not to listen, and when he does, I swear, he is trying to roll his eyes. I feel like he should come with a disclaimer "what you say can and will be held against you, most likely in an embarrassing situation." Consider yourself warned, he remembers everything.

He is also starting to show a preference for my husband.  This is mostly at bedtime and bath time, and Jeff loves it.  I have to remind myself Luke is just a toddler and wanting Daddy to read bedtime stories is not an insult to Mommy.  I also have to remember not to rub it in when Luke wants to snuggle with me and not Jeff.

When Luke is really tired it is almost like he has been replaced with an evil impostor child, and when he's happy his smile and laugh can light up a room.  I'm learning to not get so frustrated by the rough times, and not to be sensitive when he wants his daddy.  Not getting so stressed out is also helping me to enjoy the fun times even more.