Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts

Monday, August 1, 2011

Gratitude...

The growing ability to see the great things in my children is such a great exercise, and one that I am, if fact, very grateful for.
I can't remember who thought of it - did I, or was it something someone said that made me think of it, I don't know. But in the few weeks that I have been practising this mindful kind of parenting, I think we've all come a little way toward further appreciating one another. I'm more willing to relax about things my kids do and take a gentler road than screaming like a banshee, and they seem more relaxed because of that noise reduction, too, I guess.
The boy in front of me is growing more and more independent each day. One day it was like he needed help picking his clothes out, the next he is nearly reading and writing different things on his own. His brain is growing in ability, he monitors his own behaviour so much more than before, and the love he has for others inspires me to do the same.
The girl, well, she's rapidly approaching two and I can barely believe that it was not far from this age in Ethan that I found out I was having another bub. She is really one easy going kid! Has her fair share of input to our conversations and ideas about how things should go, but generally is happy to go along with the majority.
And for this, and many other things, I am grateful.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Honesty....thanks and no thanks!

I am so amazingly impressed each day by the leaps and bounds a 4 year old can make. Well, and a 20month old, but more of that later.
It wasn't long ago that my son would fight, kick and destroy to get his own way. He now walks a bit calmer a path, instead he'll mostly remove himself from an irritating situation, even if it means I've seen him get annoyed and remind him that he has the option to do so. Not that I like him watching loads of tv, but I do like that he has it to turn to when he needs to 'switch off' and relax - I mean, I relax with knitting, blogging and reading, it's only fair he has his methods too, right? So imagine my surprise today when instead of coming out and playing with his friend, he decided to watch tv. Then when he did, and his friend deliberately annoyed him - he just turned and told him outright that what the friend did was annoying, and he wanted his friend to go home.
I was so very embarrassed! But straight up, that's got to be a silver lined cloud, hey? I mean, he didn't kick, scream or yell (not at first, anyway), he told this person what he honestly thought. It was just a bit embarrassing for me, but that doesn't worry him! So today I just have to be very thankful for the ability to toggle between behaviour that is destructive and behaviour that will get the honest truth out in the open.
It just feels like in the space of a week I've gone from having a toddler and a baby to having a child and a toddler....
Alice has gone through an amazing personality change of late - soooo opinionated, so verbal, and so very, very independent! She is fast learning to try and push the point of her own way, with everything from being carried constantly to making me sit with her and do her favourite thing, which is mostly drawing. Her speech, in my opinion, is spectacular! So toddler-ville here we come! Hooray for being a Toddler (and yeah, remind me of that in a couple weeks)!!!