So I'm in the library with a hood and sunglasses checking out "Toddler Time, 150 Easy Ways to Keep Them Busy, Sare & Happy" and "Year 'Round Activities for Three-Year-Old Children." On the cover of these books are images of calm, toddlers playing contentedly. I wanted something in the line of "What the Heck Can I Play with This Kid When His Brothers and Sisters are Gone for the Day?" or "Acitivities that Engage a Three-Year-Old for More Than 45 Seconds." I'm hoping the librarian doesn't comment on the reading material and strike up a conversation forcing me to deny the 5 other children I have and lying that this is my first child.
Seriously.
I have no idea how to parent an only child.
There is a 7 year gap between my last two children. Bill jokingly refers to the first five children as the "first family."
I am feeling as terrified as a new mother. On the upside the terror has smothered any residual smug that I had lingering.
I'm really unsure if it's my lack of experience with hanging out with just one toddler all day or if I'm trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Either way, I am trying to recover that "go with the flow of the child" thing with my dear Luke. What holds me back is "going with the flow" with Luke might mean taking that giant parachute most toddlers use as a fun circle game and pitching ourselves off the roof with it. I'm just not up for that, you know?
I was whining to my sister that I just don't recall the other kids being so.....busy. so.....daring. so......dangerous to themselves and others.
My sister said I sounded like Mom with selective memory loss.
Mom? SHE'S A GRANDMOTHER! She's allowed to have selective memory loss based on being out of the game for so long!!!!!!!
Yeah, Mom, she says.
Don't you remember Jake climbing to the top of the refrigerator in the middle of the night? Don't you remember when he used to climb on top of Bill's truck and pee off the side? Don't you remember when he snuck out of the house and was found running down the train tracks? Or the stitches in the eye three weeks after stitches on the outside of the other eye? Don't you remember......stop.....please.....I beg you.....just. stop.
What did I do? Was I freaking out? I don't remember freaking out? I don't remember not knowing what to do with him? And it's not that I don't know what to do with Luke, either. I've done lots with him. All the regular toddler stuff. Playdoh, cutting (one of his favorite things to do which is why I've purchased three wired mouses for the computer last year before wising up and getting a wireless mouse.), puzzles, blocks, (but prove to be dangerous as he mostly enjoys chucking them as those heavy things have a better feel in his throw than a silly old ball), reading books to him, trucks, cars, trains, etc.
But he really wants to jump, run, move, jump, jump, jump.
We went to the ice skating rink last week. His main interest was the upper level, about 15 feet up, and asking if he could jump. Uh, no. Another parent with three children under the age of 5, all sitting calmly on the bleachers watching their older brother skate watched in judgement at my son scaling the bleachers for over an hour. His baby girl, looked to be about 1, sat in her stroller the entire 2 hours we were there.
Sheer amazement. No WAY would Luke have EVER sat that long. In fact, I've passed that stroller along because he just won't sit in it at all...he prefers to be moving. No sitting.
Meanwhile, I am flipping through the pages of these reads shaking my head. No, that won't work. Already did that. We'll try again.
I'm going back to the library to find a toddler activity book with a title like, "Activities for Three-Year-Olds That Can Only Be Done While Moving Large Muscles."
Any recommendations?
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Thanks :)