Wait Five Minutes

You know that stupid joke, “Don’t like the weather in (city of choice)?  Just wait five minutes!”  Har-har.  Well, how about this: Don’t like your kids’ attitudes/behavior/eating habits/(insert frustrating conduct here)?  Wait five minutes!

 

A month or so ago, this was my life.  And this.  And although EVERY terrible thing about mothering my two children has proven to be temporary (waking at all hours of the night!  Teething!  Potty accidents!), when I’m in the shit, I feel like I’m never going to get out.  I fail to learn the “this, too, shall pass” lesson that my mother repeats to me All. The. Time.  Seriously, stop it mom, I know it’s temporary, but it still sucks right now.

 

But it did pass.  For the past month-ish, Charles has had a complete attitude adjustment.  Like a switch was flipped, his behavior is now much more reasonable and calm.  He still gets upset, he still cries, but he isn’t kicking and screaming without end.  I haven’t had to walk out the door in anger and frustration in a long time.  I don’t dread the nights that Tony has late softball games and I have to go through the bedtime routine alone. 

 

Did I do something to affect this change?  No.  This has, I believe, nothing to do with me.  It’s just time.  It’s just the neurons in Charles’s brain developing, his faculties changing.  He’s growing, and it’s hard, and I have to do my best to nurture growth and not strangle him in the process.  Some days, I just have to do my best to survive.

 

But then, five minutes later, everything has changed.  Jamie is still stubbornly working on two teeth that have been fighting their way through his top gums for a month and he’s on a bit of a hunger strike (I’m reminded that at this age, Charles ate primarily canned ravioli and PBJs), while Charles declared at last night’s meal, “Mommy, I LOVE this dinner!  It’s my favorite dinner!”  You see?  Everything changes.

 

I had thought that maybe I was gaining weight during the terrible, trying months of the Fucking Fours from stress eating and drinking.  But I continue to gain weight, so maybe now it’s just happy eating and drinking, or relaxed and relieved eating and drinking.  Either way, I have got to stop this madness, or people will wonder if I’m pregnant (I’m not).