The Honest Truth

I don't need parents. I can do it all by myself!

I don't keep a baby book, but rather a blog. And somehow I generally remember things not quite as they were if they aren't written down soon after taking place. Since this is the place that I look back at to remember, I thought I owed it to myself and all you faithful readers to tell some honest truths about my perfect son Benjamin and our loving, adorable family. ha.

Once Nate starts teething I want to be able to remember what it was like for Ben. Teething is the worst thing to ever happen to us and it just seems to happen constantly and for a long period of time!

When Ben started getting his first teeth (always in multiples) he cried a lot and didn't sleep well.

He got a little older and was eating more pureed foods so when teething he would refuse to eat. Sometimes he refused multiple meals in a day. I made lots of smoothies so he would at least get some nutrition while on his hunger strike.

Then, he had a few more teeth and more mobility and independence. So, with teething came biting and hitting.

Now he is completely mobile and thinks he is completely independent and has some verbal skills. Therefore with teething he has instituted proficient and often over-use of the word "no" and will deliberately do what we asked him not to do or not do what we asked him to do.

All kids go through stages. No kid is perfect. Blah Blah Blah. My kid has split personalities. There is the teething Ben and the non-teething Ben. When teething, we get a totally different child that is barely recognizable and patience-limiting to say the least. When he is not teething, he is a complete joy and very compliant.

We know now that as soon as we see bad behavior, we check his mouth. We have never been wrong. It doesn't make it any less frustrating and we certainly don't allow the misbehavior when he is teething.

I will share one story so you all know how human we are and how our angel children can turn devilish in an instant. But, somehow we still love them.

Last Wednesday we were at our church plant team meeting. Our team consists of three married couples (including us) and we all have one child (Ben - 20 months, Jackson - 14 months, Nadia - 10 months). We meet in one of our homes and enjoy dinner with the kids strapped into high chairs. Then, the meeting begins and the toys come out and chaos is sure to ensue in some form or another. Last Wednesday was the first time having the newest couple (Nadia's parents) join our team as they just moved here from LA. We were praying for each other to open our meeting, Ben and Jackson were walking around with toys and Nadia was in a Johnny Jump-up thing in a doorway. It was my turn to pray and (as always) I was praying with my eyes wide open to watch my adorable toddler. About one sentence in Ben walked over to an unsuspecting Nadia and threw a hard plastic toy directly in her face. I said 'Amen' mid-sentence and rushed over to Nadia. The long-held breath and coming scream was enough to have her mother by my side in a split second to comfort her and Ben and I proceeded into the next room where he had to sit in time out, screaming his head off as if I had beat him (I wanted to, but I didn't touch him, I promise!). And that statement does not represent my stance on spanking - I'm not going there in this post. I could hear all the adult whispers of "what happened?" and "I didn't see it!" as they awaited my return to the room. After Ben calmed down and my blood pressure dropped back to near normal, we rejoined the group and Ben gave hugs and kisses as his apology to Nadia. And, while that was by far the worst thing that happened in that meeting, it wasn't the last time Ben was discipined that evening. I came home and cried and had to dig deep in my soul to hug and kiss that boy goodnight that evening. I love him all the time, but there are moments that I just don't want to be his friend :)

Hope that gave you all a laugh knowing your days of parenting are behind you or maybe it brought back a vivid memory of something similar that happened to you once. Or, maybe now you just know that even missionary kids misbehave terribly and we are all just trying our best to raise Godly children and the sin nature is alive and well from an early age!