How do you moms with toddlers keep from losing your mind? All of my children are currently in possession of bumps, bruises and cuts, and this doesn’t show signs of stopping.
They are precious but also audacious. Holy Moley! The little lady is the worst! A daredevil at heart she can climb, jump, rock and run better than most high school athletes. She loves to flip and spin and dance and jump, and she’s even perfected a few hysterical new moves: Technique 1 – imagine a 32 inch lifelike doll bouncing and swaying w/one hand waving in the air, fingers spread as if she’s rapping “Holla!”; Technique 2 – imagine a 32 inch lifelike doll taking a short stop crouching position in between her sprints around the house, as if to say, “think you can catch me?”; Technique 3 – imagine a 32 inch lifelike doll crooking her pointer finger and bouncing it up and down while grinning a face splitting grin. These particular moves are not dangerous, but every other single move she has IS!
And the eldest engineer, supposedly the thinking man, is nuts too. He can climb up onto ANYTHING no matter what we do to blockade it and then he leans off the side upside down. The only reason he hasn’t landed head first is because we’re there to catch him and tell him no. He certainly is more thoughtful than the others, but that has not translated into less bumps and bruises. Oh, and he’s seriously mastered a slide. I realize you’re supposed to redirect and not say no, but with these kids, no just flies out of our mouths.
Not to be left out, our chunky baby of the bunch laughs with each outlandish brutish move. Standing fully upright on the toddler rocker and laughing like he was on drugs. Running around outside slamming his head into the swing and pushing the others around in the choo choo wagon (until it goes 10 feet and slams into the wall) and laughing so hard he sometimes loses his balance. The child is bruised from butt to shin. And this is with most of their time spent in our completely foam tile padded den!
Rarely do any of these near brushes with death cause alarm or tears. If anything, they are the cause of great mirth. The fact that there is no understanding of the “effect” part of “cause and effect” is extremely distressing to me and I understand it will stay this way for some number of years. I have to say it because, as you know, there really is no other appropriate reaction –“seriously?”
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