Love You Deckie

Declan is going through one of my favorite times right now. He's just soaking up words and I love that now I can tell when he's really excited about something. Now, this may be the revelation that Mommy's car is in the garage which is under his room (that was a serious blow-your-mind moment in this little boy's world) or that we saw a "big plane" at the airport. He's also pretty great with colors, yellow being his favorite.

He loves to specify which-like the red socks he was obsessed with last night, and is putting together ideas incessantly. Like those red socks last night, they were wet, which is why they were sitting on the dresser. When I told him they were wet he said "water, socks, wet". Now this may sound incredibly simple to you, but the fact that he was telling me that he understands what wet means makes me just as proud as if he knew the whole alphabet.

He's also forming attachments to places, things, and people. And while he's not yet the most suave baby I know, I love that he's becoming social. Declan's a little clumsy and over-friendly, he likes to give kisses and hugs and, let's face it, not everyone likes that. But I'd rather he be overly friendly than uninterested or shy. It brings a lot of challenges and opportunities to explain, for the fourth time that day, that people like soft touches and hi fives rather than tackles and slaps. He's doing better on the slaps, which are embarrasing and I intervene every single time I see, but the other over-touches...I may have a controversial view on those.

I'm a big fan of natural consequences and I think it's okay for a kid to tell Declan to stop and push him down or move his hand or, frankly, slap him right back. My thoughts are that if he's not hurting anyone, he'll learn better if he gets a little dose of his own medicine than he will if I constantly intervene.

But sometimes I feel like other parents who don't have children with this issue tend to judge, I know I did before I dealt with this. I thought that if a kid was a little aggressive it was because the parents weren't doing all they could. Now I know people with experience with toddlers say that most of them go through this, but I swear sometimes it feels like he's the only one. And I try to have faith in Declan's sweetness and smarts and give him the benefit of the doubt instead of labeling him or bemoaning his social development.


On a good note, Declan's never been more affectionate. He loves to give me hugs and kisses and commonly asks for my hand and to sit in my lap. The thing I have to most remind myself is to be so grateful for this time with my baby boy. To kiss him and love him and be patient with him while he figures out how to navigate this big, big world.