That being said, I love having a three year old. It's trying and frustrating and sometimes I want to pull my hair out...but mostly, it's a lot of fun. Reed is his own person now, with his own personality and quirks and communication abilities and interests. It's so fun to see all of this developing. Reed is very intelligent and I love watching him make connections, use new words, and make analogies. I even like answering his one million questions. Because I know that in answering those questions I'm helping him to connect the dots, you can literally see his wheels turning.
He is frustrating though. He is most definitely a strong-willed child and often tries to test his limits with me and Dane. Sometimes it's easier to lose my patience and yell. But most of the time it's completely ineffective and only serves to upset me, or Reed...or both. I have found (through lots of trial and error) that it's best to remain calm with Reed and offer choices, make it a game, or have him be a part of finding the solution. I'm not saying that we are never stern with him or that he never gets punished for his actions. We believe that sometimes this is absolutely necessary, but in many cases it's just not what's most effective with Reed.
Maybe that's not how you do it with your kid, but I'm willing to bet that your kid is different than mine. We're figuring out what works for him. It's a balance trying to do that and feeling like you are still holding your child accountable and disciplining effectively. And I know we're not perfect. We will just have to adjust along the way as needed.
Recently I read this article about parenting a strong-willed child and it affirmed a lot of what we've been doing and reminded me that I'm not "letting him win" by not yelling and being tough all the time. We don't want to tamper this spirit in him to explore and create and ask questions, so Dane and I just have to learn how to work with it.
The person who said parenting was no easy task was a genius ;)
Speaking of parenting...I just had my 16 week appointment and baby 2 is doing well. We have our 20 week ultrasound scheduled for January 9...and yes, we will hopefully find out the gender at that time. There are so many surprises with pregnancy and childbirth that I like to have one thing I can be almost 100% certain of at the end of it all. Excited to find out who we're bringing into our family and looking forward to getting to know him or her.
Reed age 1, 2, and 3
Rockstar
Family pic at his birthday party.
Blowing out the candles on his cupcake.
Riding his new toy from Papa, Pat, Pop, and Jim.
I love being Reed's mommy, challenges and all, and look forward to trying my hand at the next one. Thank God for grace and forgiveness as I routinely make mistakes and try again the next day.
