Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Eccentricities of a Child (or 'Climbing, and Ranting and Spiels Oh My!'

I don't have to try hard around here to find that people have quirks. Although we try hard as adults to use self control, kids just haven't come that far.
I have a climber in the house, for instance. She is two. She has quite the 'can do' attitude and she uses it to her advantage. She can climb the chairs, counters, entertainment unit, and other various scary things in my house; and so she does. She seems to have absolutely no fear whatsoever. My Dear husband insists we should have her checked for radio-activity, to see if she has had the Spider-Man treatment, as he believes she even has the ability to climb walls. I can not figure out where she gets it from. Mind you, there is that old idea that your kids are payback for what you did to your parents as a child.

I'd like to take this moment to address my parents. What ever I did, I am SOOOOOO sorry.

I'd like for that one to use the self control I've been trying to get to 'take' for quite some time now; until then, I just have to amuse myself with the fact that most of what she does no longer makes my heart threaten to jump right out of my chest, like I see it do to grandma when she observes this particular child.
 I guess in some ways, desensitization is not just a term to use about getting too used to tv violence anymore.

Have you ever watched the total abandonment to which a child submits themselves when they are having a fit? You'd think they'd be embarassed when they lose it, but no, this type of refinement is left for many adults. (I'd say all, but I've been to Wal-Mart lately.....just saying, you find all kinds there.)

It's just like fireworks, seeing a child go off..... they change colours, make noise, and some throw themselves in the air. Then they come down in a less than spectacular fashion. Yup. It's fun while it lasts, and the power expelled in the process is unbelieveable.
And somehow, as we grow, we figure out that we'd better tone it down. Fireworks become sparklers; at least I'm hoping so.......

Perhaps it is overexposure to my child's eccentricities, but I find myself occasionally tuning out when my little professor is yet again telling me everything about his video games.
 Perhaps I should hang on my oldest childs' third monologue of the day on the topic of Luigi's Mansion and all of the pictures of the specific characters he has spent all day drawing, and how he's gonna frame them all and hang in his room; I'd have to say that the conversation all too often is completely onesided and ends up reminding me of the teacher in highschool that was teaching a subject you were just convinced you were never gonna need again. You tried desperately to look like you were paying attention..... but you were miles away.
I'm not even sure that the things I was doing while tuning the boy out were even interesting; dishes, laundry, or just trying to make the kid do his school work.

Sometimes I wonder how much of these quirks I'm gonna miss one day. There is the occasional gem in the monologue about 'all things Nintendo',  or you get a glimpse of what makes your firecracker 'tick', or you even get the unusual rare moment in your climber when she is just sitting quietly in your lap, looking like she's got no ambitions to scale any large piece of furniture, and spontaeneously looks you in the eye and in her own garbled two year old way says "A wove you mommee". It warms the heart and makes all the hard moments worth it.

Regular self-control will come; but today is not that day......