BTLA: The Longest Shortest Time

Friday, June 2, 2017

The Longest Shortest Time

Image result for days are long years are short

"The Longest Shortest Time" is the name of one of my latest favorite Podcasts (to read about my fairly recent Podcast obsession, view this blog post). It (hosted by Hilary Frank) talks about parenting issues and philosophies, and is just so very informative, charming, and thoughtful.
I love the title, and its sentiment is also captured by the above quote.

I know I have expressed on multiple occasions, how much of a humbling, frustrating, struggle parenthood has been for me. The continuous sleep deprivation and battles of the wills with an incredibly intelligent, but strong-willed and yes, manipulative child, made me irritable, stressed, frustrated, and yes, even despairing, for the majority of the last two-plus years (and made me question, many times, why I got myself into this).

I am, so thankfully, coming out of that fog. Our little two-and-a-half-year-old munchkin is sleeping consistently ~9-9.5 hours through the night, as well as past 5 a.m. (!) for the last month (a pattern which even was sustained during our recent travel, which was amazing-- often our trips bring setbacks). It is so incredibly amazing to feel "rested" in the morning, instead of reaching for the coffee (for which I have developed quite an addiction) at 4:55 a.m. He still naps (they are much less of a fight), giving us a fairly consistent break from his "penetrating intensity."

He still has his share of tantrums (fridge-kicking as part of a tantrum of not letting him stand in the fridge was his latest stunt this week), but he is so communicative and perceptive, that accepting the consequences of his choices makes sense to him, and discipline is so much easier than the "awful ones." (When he didn't stop kicking the fridge when asked, and when told that he would, as a result, forfeit his special fruit pouch for school, he completely understood. Then, the next day he said "I get fruit pouch today because I no kick the fridge."). HE'S TWO!

He is learning a lot of Vietnamese words and uses them in his jokes, to which he cackles. He mispronounces words or adds consonants to get a rise out of us. He loves stories, nursery rhymes (Baa, Baa Black Sheep is his current favorite), and songs (he busts out his baby guitar to sing to us).

He is so kind and empathetic. He says "Sorry, mama (or papa)!" when he spills milk or drops something, and "Thank you, mama (or papa)" frequently. He loves to have us cuddle him in bed and constantly wants to be held/carried even though, at 2.5 and still around the 3% for weight at around 24 lbs, he's getting heavy for me and my back.

While going into parenthood, I knew that I wasn't a particularly baby/toddler-loving "maternal" type of person (more of an "ambivalent" parent, if you will) and I don't think that, at any point in the last two years, I could say that I've loved parenting him or being a mom, now I see why people can consider having more than one...

Right now, while I really don't miss the days of infancy and one-year-old irrational tantrums, and much prefer parenting an older, verbal and rational child, I do realize that older children bring their own challenges. This is surely the "longest, shortest time" and maybe, one day, I will feel that it went by disappointingly quickly.