• Castles In the Sky

           Recently we have had a little bit of a rough transitional period with Dexter. I used to pride myself that I was so in sync with him and that I knew when he was tired or hungry or any number of things almost before he did. Right about when we moved things became a little more complicated. Looking back I feel most of it was Dex adjusting to a new enviroment and dealing with the stress he felt from me as well. Seems that this age though can be a little tricky in itself though. He is about 15 months old and its seems ever since he started really walking I had to get to know my baby all over again. A whole new world has opened to him and he is awful curious about the whole thing. Suddenly napping, eating and just everything in general is much more complicated than it was only a month ago. I felt myself getting frustrated and not handling things like the mother I wanted to be. Things have definitely leveled out and we are back in sync with each other. I have learned a lot thru this little time period that will hopefully be useful with future challenges that may arise. I purchased one book in particular that I have really enjoyed called “The Gentle Parent” by L.R. Knost. Now some of it is a little on the cheesy side (there is a lot of talk of building castles in the sky and such) but for the most part it contains a lot of practical, beautiful advice and sentiments. One favorite of mine was in regards to yelling at our children.”If you find yourself yelling, or before you yell if you can catch yourself, take a parental time out, breathe deeply to regain control of yourself, and remind yourself that everything is not a crisis, then work on approaching whatever the issue is with the self-control, maturity, and grace that you’d like your children to emulate. Remember, they are watching, and they are learning, so act like the adult you want them to become.”   Such a beautiful thought I wanted to share and one I hope to always remember in the future. Would love to hear if any of you had issues at this age as well and any advice you’d like to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and hope everyone has had a great week and looking forward to an even better weekend!