I was about to sit down and write something about toddlers and testing limits. After all, there was a whole lot of that going on around here today. It seemed as if Dylan and I went from one tense situation to another as he pushed and pushed and pushed some more. Of course, the fact that I went to bed late last night did not help matters any, because it is much easier to deal with typical toddler behavior when one is well rested.
While my day did contain plenty of fodder for an article about why and how toddlers test the limits of their parents rules as well as their patience, I am making a deliberate choice not to write that article. Instead, I have mentally reviewed my day and I have found that even though it felt like all Dylan and I did was debate and struggle, there were actually quite a few smiles, laughs, and joyful moments in there too. By remembering the things that were good about today, I have already shifted my state of mind from negative to positive. I like that, because it means that I will be going to bed feeling good about today instead of analyzing what went wrong.
What are those golden nuggets of happiness that make the stresses and struggles of the day take a back seat in my memory? One biggie was simply cuddling up in bed with the boys and watching a movie before bed. Before that, we all had our first experience with The Wiggles (we borrowed three movies and a bunch of books from the library today). What interested me most about that was not the content of the program itself but watching Dylan dance around on the bed. He was grinning from ear to ear, and making up hilariously adorable dance moves. Speaking of humor, for dinner I had attempted to disguise zucchini as pasta by sautéing thin strips of it and smothering it with tomato sauce and sausage. Dylan took a bite of his zucchini “noodles” and then made a face. I asked him whether he liked it, and he sighed heavily before earnestly replying “No, not really”. For some reason, that did not infuriate me like so many other things had today. The way in which he said it was just so plain and honest that it made me laugh heartily as I fixed him something else to eat while I enjoyed my plate of zucchini “noodles”. Other highlights included reading books on the deck and having “batting practice” outside during Blake’s nap.
Have you ever had a “bad day” with your toddler that upon further examination really was not so bad after all?