One of my favorite children’s books is Good Night Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown.  It is a classic and if you don’t already have it get it!

Eva love’s this book and wants me to read it everynight before she goes to bed.  I love it too, the illustrations are amazing as if the moonlight is acutally there on the page.  Eva love’s saying good night to all of the items in the room and then we go around and say goodnight to everything in her room right before she goes to bed.  It works like a charm!

My title is a little bit sarcastic today.  This is more me just venting.  Toddlers are an interesting dichotomy of opposites.  They can be cute and loving one minute and obnoxious and defiant the next.  Evangeline has just recently entered the testing stage and man can she test mommy’s patience.  On a typical day she will wake up sweet and loving, just full of smiles and hugs and kisses.  She is easy and agreeable.  I say, “do you want milk?” and she nods happily and is content.  A few hours later she is demanding, and cries and screams if I get up to do anything.  Throw’s a tantrum if she can’t have something she wants.  Is defiant. This morning she threw her milk on the floor when she was done eating (her daily ritual).  When she got down I asked her to pick it up and put it on the table, which she normally does just fine.  Nope not today she sat there and stared at it and didn’t move. 

I am just sitting here this morning thinking… “how long does this time last for?”  She is only 18 months old, do I really have another 12-18 months of this?  When she is being cute and adorable I find myself loving this age and never wanting it to end.  But 2 seconds later she is throwing a tantrum and I am wondering, “when will it end?”

Please go to this site and vote for this project.  These are very good and reliable people.  They run a website called Guatadopt.com and they have a huge heart for the children of Guatemala.

http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/NVRAXK

So, please go and vote before Sept. 1st!

Thanks!  Jill

She calls me “mommy”, I call her “baby”.
She takes my hand, I gladly stand.
She smiles sweetly, my heart skips a beat.
She kisses me lovingly, I melt in a heap.

Okay, so we all agree that although our kids are beyond lovable most of the time sometimes they are  not so lovable.  For example, every time I change my daughters diaper she throws a fit because she does not like to be slowed down.  She will yell, kick, and scream.  If she is being extra feisty she will kick me really hard and very forcefully try to turn around to get out of having her diaper changed.  Anyone who has ever parented a toddler in diapers I’m sure can relate.   I have tried many different strategies and nothing has seemed to work.

Well, I was reading a quote today that said something about kids needing to be loved the most when they are being unlovable.   If ever I am going to run out of patience with Eva it is going to be when she is throwing one of her diaper changing fits.  So today I repeated that quote in my head like a mantra.  When I changed her diaper she threw a fit, tried to turn around, and kicked me the whole time.  I repeated the mantra and tried to remember that I needed to love her throughout that.  When I was done changing her I told her I loved her and she stood up and gave me a hug.  Of course my heart melted.