I’m bound and determined to get these posts done before baby 2 comes along. I may even go back in time and finish some that were started but never saw the light of the blog’s day.

I guess I never really understood how hard it was to parent. First off, no matter who you talk to or what article you read, you’re doing it wrong. My compassion for other parents’ choices regarding any aspect of this 24/7 job has significantly increased since having Ruthie.

I’m now in the weird gray area of having Ruth unlearn a few things.

Like block towers for instance. When she was 8 months old we would squeal and clapped if she knocked down the tower. But now? Do I want her thinking it’s okay to knock down any ole tower she sees? Probably not.

So one day I set it up and made a big deal about not knocking down another person’s tower… just to see how long she lasted.
At first she waved her hand really slowly in front of it, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. She knows.
And then tried to bribe me: You give me 5 goldfish crackers, I won’t knock this down MOTHER.
See? I’m already in the wrong.

But quickly she was distracted by something on her finger. It was probably a booger. That’s worth about 10 goldfish crackers in her world.
But then she spent the majority of the afternoon playing without touching the tower.
 ….or reading


But then it caught her eye again…
and got distracted again by possibly another booger.

Staring at the tower and contemplating….
So I played the Sound of Music and promptly balled my eyes out when the Captain sees his kids singing for the first time.
That gave the tower an extra 15 minutes of life I imagine.

..and that was the last known photo of the tower before enough was enough and it had to come down.

Did you like your peek into my day of parenting. It’s pretty hard core. And I’m sure I did it wrong.