I started this post last week, but never did publish it...& then I got the SWEETEST note & gift from a friend today, and it reminded me that I AM a good Mom, no matter how "stressed" & lacking as a parent I may feel!
So here is last week's post....
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Cross has TRULY tested my patience this week, so we had some much needed one-on-one time last night.
Tanner & Helee were gone, so Cross & I drove out to some family land & he picked me flowers!
I started reading "The New Strong Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson this weekend.
Cross has always been a tiny bit more difficult than Helee ever was and I could not help but laugh outloud when I read, "When there are two children in the family, one is likely to be compliant and the other defiant....One cuddles to your embrace and the other kicks you in the navel"
In the first chapter, a little anecdote really stuck out to me, so I thought I would share it for some of my friends that have their own strong-willed kids in their life!
"Imagine yourself in a grocery store, pushing a cart up the aisle. You give the basket a small shove, and it glides at least nine feet out in front and then comes to a gradual stop. You walk along happily tossing in the soup and ketchup and loaves of bread. Grocery shopping is such an easy task, for even when the cart is burdened with goods, it can be directed with one finger.
But buying groceries is not always so blissful. On other occasions, you select a cart that ominously awaits your arrival at the front of the market. When you push the stupid thing forward, it tears off to the left and knocks over a stack of bottles. Refusing to be outmuscled by an empty cart, you throw all your weight behind the handle, fighting desperately to keep the ship on course. It seems to have a mind of its own as it darts toward the eggs and careens back in the direction of a terrified grandmother in green tennis shoes. You are trying to do the same shopping assignment that you accomplished with ease the week before, but the job feels more like combat duty today. You are exhausted by the time you herd the contumacious cart toward the checkout counter.
What is the difference between the two shopping baskets? Obviously, one has straight, well-oiled wheels that go where they are guided. The other has crooked, bent wheels that refuse to yield. Do you get the point? We might as well face it; some kids have crooked wheels! They do not want to go where they are led, because their own inclinations take them in other directions. Furthermore, the parent who is pushing the cart must expend seven times the energy to make it move, compared with the parent of a child with straight wheels. (Only mothers and fathers of strongwilled children will fully comprehend the meaning of this illustration.)"
My sweet Cross...Has Crooked Wheels!
I absolutely love him to death...and maybe he loves me so much that he is helping to make me a stronger Momma!
I know that one day, I will look back & laugh at some of the things we are dealing with...but for know, I am just holding on tight & smiling thru the "shopping trip"
Oh & FYI...Nothing is really that big of a deal! Its mostly a 2 year old picking up some bad behavior habits we need to break FAST!
We are just going to go thru a few cans of WD-40 to get those wheels running smooth & straight!
So back to our little trip to the country...
I love this piece of land...It is not too far out of town (that's our little town off in the distance) but its far enough that its so peaceful & its exactly the calmness I needed.
Some day's, you just need to escape! & that is just what Cross & I did.
