Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tightrope Walking

All you mothers out there will probably chuckle at this one. Me, I guess I'm still quite a rookie at this ... in fact, I have the sinking suspicion I might always be! ;0) Any changes, and I mean ANY changes can really throw your rhythm and once again you have to sit back, reassess and try again.

Previously living in Albuquerque, Isaac and I had only a few other young mothers to interact with. In fact, aside from Sundays and my monthly Visiting Teaching visits, Isaac never saw any other children. Now we have exactly the opposite problem ... there's tons to do! There are story times, play groups, play dates, etc, etc. At first Isaac was having a great time - little people everywhere! But in just the last 2 days I've noticed he's more irritable, spastic and wired. Despite all the new activities and friends, he is not really all that happy.

I'm sure some of you out there are going - duh - but I'm a little slower on the uptake. After some thinking I realized that the QUALITY time we spend together as mother and child has decreased significantly. What he needs is me! He doesn't need the chauffeuring between activities, or the myriad of play dates that we somehow get invited to, he just needs some good old play time with Mama.

So for a fun new activity, just him and I, we came up with a new kind of fun. We took the play pool, and empty container and some packing peanuts ... Voila! New and crazy fun!











We put it in the container, poured it out, (NUMEROUS times), kicked the peanuts around and even threw them at each other. Afterwards we cleaned up. That little half hour to 45 mins of focused play had him so much calmer and happier for the rest of the day.



So the lesson is ... BALANCE. Yes, I need to get out to stay sane, (thank heavens I have more than a grocery store to go to now) and he needs some interactions with other children... but just enough so as to keep 'Mama and Isaac time' intact! Now the question is, once I achieve this ... what happens when another kid comes along????!! ;0)

3 comments:

  1. children react to different way than what we expect somtime,huh? I started to realise with Little H also. I think he needs more interectual or physical excitment durying play time. I have to think of somthing to help him entertain. Little H wants more sicne he started to walk. I mean paly time, but I do not know why... so here goes. Mom has a headach to figure out what he wants without any words. hahahah

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  2. Yes!!! It's such a guessing game sometimes... and I have the feeling even when they can speak, they themselves aren't sure of what they want either, they just know they aren't exactly happy!

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  3. I'm so glad that the pool is working out! :) I hope we still get to be on the outings list! :)

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