I hope it's not wrong to call my child 'cheeky' but I think it sounds far nicer than 'naughty' (when they don't even know right from wrong until they're 8!) and much more playful than 'a bad little boy' which, to me, just sounds way off the mark.
Toddlers are curious and always want to be helping. At least this little guy does. Today we got a TV delivered to us - nearly 3 years of not having one we decided to just go for it and have hardly had it plugged in haha ;). Well in the midst of the delivery and set-up, Ro wanted to help and was very eager to rake through the empty cardboard box and then proceeded to put a plastic bag over his head :/.
With the plastic bag carefully balled up and put out to the rubbish, he then began pushing his new chair around the room.
He was entertained by pushing a chair around the room, meanwhile all the action was going on behind him. But the chair, the chair was where it was at. He is a self-soother, a self-entertainer and for about a year now has been capable of ripping off clothes and dressing himself to some extent.
I wonder where the baby, the lost sleep, the sanity sapping feeding and all the other delights of new babyhood have vanished too in such a short time. Or those new worries over what to feed him for his first foods, the worry that he wasn't walking - all of it has evaporated as each stage develops and teaches me to be still, be calm. Everything works out in the end.
We, me and B, have such a gentle little boy.
Yes he has his moments where he runs in circles round things, burning off that seemingly endless energy, or when he will have an 'it's not fair!' moment. And he is probably the biggest extrovert going - he won't struggle with that painfully shy personality I've had to shed over the years...but there are those gentle, cuddly moments. Like this morning when B brought him through for a cuddle and a feed. It was just us two, me and my son, in the big bed I share with my husband. He stood up at one point, reached for my arm and began to stroke it ever so softly.
It will be a moment I cherish for a long time to come because lately there haven't been enough cuddles - he swats my kisses away and pushes out of cuddles. It doesn't mean I am not loved. It just means he will come to me. In his own time. And on his terms.
I understand so much more when my dad made a comment about hugs, several years ago; "I love getting hugs off you." At the time it was nice, but it didn't mean more than what he'd said. Now I'm seeing it in 3D vision, with so much more clarity. And I won't even begin to try to pick apart how my Heavenly Parents must be feeling...