Dear Stay-at-Home Mom

Chet's mom sent this link to my sisters-in-law and me yesterday.  It's a letter written to the stay-at-home mom (or ANY mom for that matter!), and I thought it was amazing and wanted to share it.

I've been meaning to share these annoying interesting endearing habits Sydney has picked up lately.  They really are annoying, but I try my darnedest not to let them get to me, because I know one day I will look back and laugh, and wish I had not squandered these days by being annoyed.

1. "What's that?"  This is her current version of constantly asking "Why?"  (Although she has not done the constant "why?" thing yet.)  Sometimes she asks, "What's that?" legitimately...most of the time these days she knows perfectly well what "it" is (like her knee, for example).  Last night she was served chickpeas (among other things) for dinner, and she picked up every one and asked, "What's that?"  She also constantly asks me, "What's that?" when we're in the car and I am driving.  I patiently (sometimes impatiently) repeat over and over something like this: "Mommy can't see what you are pointing to because Mommy is driving, remember?"

2. "What am I doing?"  This is an awkward game, because Sydney will do something completely random and ask, "What am I doing?"  Sometimes it's not clear what she wants the answer to be...it could be as obvious as jumping up and down to as discreet as clenching her jaw...so we have to guess several times until we get it "right."  She's okay only about half the time with us turning the question around on her.  This is another question I constantly get in the car, so I have to repeat something similar the one above: "Mommy can't see what you are doing, Sydney, because Mommy is driving, remember?  YOU tell ME what you are doing."

3.  "Do it like that!"  This is similar to #2.  She says this when she wants to you copy what she's doing, but, again, most of the time it's not clear exactly what she wants you to copy.  It ranges from as obvious as spreading out your arms and pretending to fly, to tilting your head in a certain way.

Let me add that all of these phrases are repeated over and over again, in rapid succession.  She doesn't ask, "What am I doing?" two or three times per car trip.  No, Sirree.  She asks about 50 times in two minutes.  Yikes.

I know these quirks are part of learning and growing up, which is why we try REALLY hard not to show how they annoy us.  I don't want to squash her creativity, but we've had to put boundaries on these phrases, like at the dinner table.  I have to keep reminding her, "That's a game, and we will play it when we're all done eating."

I have more parenting "thoughts" I'd like to share, but I'll have to wait until later to post them.  I had better get moving this morning!

(She is a nut.  But we love her.)