The most annoying of all of Noah's new habits is definitely that fact that she WILL NOT keep her shoes on in the car, and most of the time she opts to take her socks off, too. This seems minor, but since she's in and out of the car several times a day being toted to and from the babysitter's house to home and running errands with the sitter, shoes get removed and put back on what seems like a bajillion (real word) times a day. Some times it will be one, sometimes both...and a lot of times it takes a ridiculously long time to relocate said removed shoes. My personal favorite is the piercing screams from back seat where she sits frustrated as heck trying to pull off her socks, too. I can't say that I don't get it. I mean, I'm from South Carolina, we do barefoot well. I'm not ashamed to say I've pulled a Britney a time or two...but as a mother who's child is capable of putting her foot in her mouth (and often does) I just don't want her walking around barefoot unless it is in our home or during the summer...
Something else that she's started doing is making use of our ample storage space in the kitchen and den. This is tricky, and is definitely fine tuning our attention to detail. When we were shopping for houses two years ago the ludicrous amount of kitchen cabinets and huge built-ins in the living room where the delicious icing on the cake for us. We seriously have about 30+ cabinets and drawers in our kitchen/family room area. Noah can now open ALL of them. She has also begun to hone her organizational skills by placing things in random cabinets and drawers where she obviously feels they belong. We find hair bows and drum sticks in with the cutting boards, half-full bottles of soy milk in with our grilling supplies, it's crazy. I just know one day we're going to come home to the smell of some food/beverage rotting and have absolutely no idea what it is and where she's stashed it.
Her second favorite thing to open now is the pull-out trash can. Y'all know what I'm talking about, right? Our trash can compartment looks like a cabinet and you pull it out, well Noah loves it. We tell her "yucky" and try and divert her attention to something else, but much to our chagrin we often find her on her tip toes checking out the garbage. Night before last I opened the drawer to throw something away and was greeted by two books (nice ones) a chain of links, and two plastic bowls resting atop the rest of our household trash. Chad was standing there and scolded her "No!" he then directed her attention to her cabinet, (which is one right next to the trash can) that we have given her to use as she pleases. "This is your cabinet," he points and puts all of her things back in it, "This is a no!" he says again sternly pointing to the trash can, and then once again "Noah, this is Noah's cabinet, you can have all of your things in here, and do whatever you want in this cabinet...." Then we left her to herself. Two minutes later Chad walks overs to the sink and beckons for me to come quickly, only to see this...
Her favorite thing to open, however is our pantry. I must admit, I'm usually the culprit that doesn't shut it completely allowing her to pry it open with her tiny fingers and start rearranging our shelves and opening the Milkbone box. If we open it to get anything out or put up groceries she is magically inside of it before we can even attempt to do whatever it was we needed to. The kid is ninja fast. Last night Chad put something away and was ushering her out of the pantry and closed the door on her fingers, accidentally. She cried for maybe two minutes until she was distracted by eating the ice I offered her for her fingers. He kind of looked at me frustrated and obviously upset that she had gotten hurt, and I couldn't help but smile. "Could you ever imagine chasing a little person around, scolding her, and doing it over and over again could be this amazing?" I asked him...I just wouldn't want to be spending my time in the evenings doing anything other than watching her discover, and grow. Even the testing of my patience and sometimes the boo-boos, too, are some of the best moments of my life to date. Because, you see, after she misbehaves she usually tries to do something silly, or walks over and offers a giant opened-mouth 14-month-old kiss...when she hurts herself she asks for "mama" and rests her head on my shoulder. It's bliss.
I was reading this morning and I had a revelation. I think my Heavenly Father feels the same way about me, and each of you. He doesn't want us to disobey him....he gets frustrated when we take our shoes off in the car, so to speak. But, he enjoys watching us grow, and learn, and finding out for ourselves what our limits are, and what we can handle versus what we need His help to do. He might chuckle at our attempts along the way, the way I do as I watch my daughter try new things, but He beams with love and compassion for us when we get it right, and when we obey. When we are hurt, and when we have boo-boos, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually we can call out His name and cling to Him like a child, we can seek comfort in the loving arms of our Heavenly Father. I am go grateful during this season of Thanksgiving that I have such a great example in the Lord and His son, Jesus of what love means. Peace and much Love, Layne
1 comment:
haha..this made me laugh b/c this is totally my child! Well, it has gotten better. At least my child hit the 'taking off shoes in the car' phase during the summer, so at least I was just having to slide crocs or something back on. And I have also found bowls and such in my trash can. Which is a hard one to break, b/c you don't want to discourage her from 'helping' throw things away...just not the stuff that SHOULDN'T be in the trash!
And you are absolutely right. Being a parent helps you better understand how our Father in Heaven loves us. It also makes us understand how important is is to raise them in righteous ways...which obviously you are doing!
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