One of the things I have been doing with Henry lately when he whines is ignoring him and saying, "Mommy can't hear the whiny voice." We then often practice together what the difference between the whiny voice and the big boy voice sounds like. He loves this... he thinks it is hilarious to hear me mock his whining. Unfortunately, he often forgets to use his big boy voice and we go back to whining, and we repeat this interaction millions of times A DAY.
So you can imagine my surprise last night when getting ready for bed, Henry first started asking my in a whiny voice to help him put his shirt on... and I was ignoring him, not because he was whining necessarily but because I have become excellent at drowning out unpleasant sounds. But I didn't have to say the line... "Mommy doesn't hear whiny voices." He stopped fussing, figured it out on his own, and corrected his tone and politely asked, "Mommy can you please help me put on my shirt?"
I nearly did a back flip. A pregnant back flip. (That would be something to see.) I couldn't believe it. It is these little glimmers of hope that make all the hard work worth it. Amazing I tell you.
He has also started to apologize, and it is the sweetest thing. It's also a sad thing sometimes... this story doesn't put me in the best light, but it was so precious that I will share it anyway. I had maybe my 3rd bout with insomnia this pregnancy a couple of nights ago and didn't sleep. Naturally by about 2 PM when Sam was napping, I was Miss Narcolepsy... I could.not.keep.my.eyes.open.
So I told Henry to play with the iPad and that I needed to rest. I told him to please not wake me up "for a few minutes." Note, first mistake. I should have given him a set time. He played alone for a few minutes, but before I had fallen asleep he started asking for a snack. I told him "no" about four times and not to ask again, but then he went to the pantry and before I knew it was trying to open an applesauce all by himself ON THE (new) COUCH.
So, I popped up impatiently off of the said couch and stormed to the kitchen, grabbed him about six different snacks in an effort to keep him from waking me up anymore, and came back to the couch and laid down. But it was over - I couldn't sleep anymore. Anyway, about 10 minutes later, Henry walked over to me on the couch and said, "Mom, I'm really sorry for waking you up."
Heart.breaker. Of course I apologized for getting angry and impatient, and we hugged and made up. I love that he wants to reconcile and make things right. I hate that my anger was the catalyst for that.
Anyway, all this to say, I love watching this kid grow up. It's a joy. I will write about sweet things that are happening with Sam soon. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
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I had one of those moments with Christian yesterday. He has a huge problem with not owning his actions. If you correct him or get after him or what not, he will immediately explain to you why he was doing it, in a complete attempt at justifying his disobedience. He even throws in an "I didn't know" or "I forgot". Yesterday, he was loading the dishwasher and stopped halfway to come and sit down and watch TV. I got up later and noticed that the dishes were still in the sink. I told him to come finish and asked him why he stopped. He told me the truth: he wanted to watch TV. No excuses, no lies, no crazy elaborate story about why he had thought he was finished. I immediately went into my room and teared up bc it was a moment 2.5 years in the making! (Sorry this is the longest comment ever.)
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