Marathon and not a sprint and other things

2 years

I had a thought about parenting...my thought is this: its really easy in parenting to just think about the short term consequences. to focus on whats happening right now. You want your child to eat all their vegetables immediately, you want them to sleep through the night right away, you want them to obey you and listen to what you say all at once...and in all honesty, you can make a child do those things. you can force feed them vegetables and spank them whenever they do something you don't like. and you will probably get some great short term benefits from it...

but I don't think that is where your focus should be at all. I think what you should be trying to do is help to build the adult that your child will eventually become. the adult who thinks and understands and is caring and healthy. and a lot of quick short term fixes won't help to create that adult. spanking Tabitha might help in the short term to get her to be obedient and well behaved. but in the long term I think it would irreparably damage our relationship and turn her into an adult who thinks that hitting is an acceptable thing to do.

and here are some other random stuff:

• Whenever we call Tabitha "our baby" she says "I'm not a baby! i'm a Tabitha!"
• Tabitha's favorite phrase in the world is "I don't like it" *sigh* its tiring
• Tabitha is doing really well at nursery, shes settling in really well and doesn't seem to be missing me as much any more
• though she is doing really well at nursery generally, she has had several biting incidents, including once when she managed to break skin. this made me feel like poop. we are working on it with nursery.
• Her favorite movies right now are "Corpse bride" and "Jumanji" I love both these films, so that's excellent!
• she loved Halloween, and she went from starting to get really scared of the dark to wanting to go out in the dark all the time so that she can look for skeletons and monsters!
• My little sister is having a baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so so so so so so so so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!
• Tabitha is already talking about Christmas, and saying "I can't wait till Christmas!" and I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to it too. it'll be the first year that she really understands whats happening and can fully enjoy it.
• I have filled Tabitha's bedroom full of glow in the dark stars, during the day you can't tell. but in the dark suddenly the walls are filled with butterflies and hearts and fairies and stars glowing.
• Tabitha has started to love "reading". shes can't actually read, but she memorizes whole sections of books and then "reads" them to us.
• married life is still very wonderful, full of love and happiness. my husband means the world to me, and hes an amazing man and father. marrying him is still the best decision I have ever made.

                                                      Tabitha in her Halloween costume!