Life Lessons : Patience

Sometimes I feel like I need to step away and have a break while others I feel like I can't 

tear myself away. 

Both of these instances happened this weekend.

This weekend started off on Friday afternoon with a mani/pedi. And it was amazing. 

And very relaxing. 

The mani/pedi was followed up by us all going out to dinner for my brother-in-law's birthday.

Then Saturday, we had a make up class at noon at Gymboree to attend. Since that was smack dab in the middle of the day, I had wanted to get some errands done before. So we ate breakfast and got ready and were about to leave when we realized that Mason pooped. No big deal. I tell Seth that I'll go change him and then we can go. 

If only it were that easy with a toddler.

And to be honest, it normally is pretty easy. Mason's gotten squirmy recently but we usually distract him with a book and he just "reads" the whole time.

But this time was different.

I don't even know what happened. I laid him down to change him and he started squirming. I gave him a book and he pushed it away. I tried to offer it again and he started full on crying and trying to turn over. I kinda just let it happen and then tried to get him to flip back over. He did eventually and I offered a book again and this time he took it. I figured I was good. I figured wrong. I started to take off his diaper and he decided he wanted to turn over. I tried to keep him still and told him no over and over and he kept trying to turn over. And let me tell you. HE IS STRONG. I was starting to get frustrated. I kept saying no. He didn't have his diaper on and he had poop all over.

And then I just let him turn over.

I couldn't fight it anymore. I will admit it, I was frustrated. By this time Seth had asked if I needed help and had come upstairs and I was just letting Mason rub his poopy butt all over his changing pad sheet. At this point, Seth took over. I was so thankful he was there because I needed a minute.

Being a parent is hard!

Toddlers don't listen.

Sometimes it sucks. I will admit it.

Seth was able to get Mason changed and met me downstairs. Twenty minutes later than I intended on leaving, we left for Target. As we were driving to Target, Seth and I talked. And what he said hit me hard. "You need to have patience with him." And I know this. He is learning. He is little. I know I need to have patience, but sometimes it's frustrating! And he understood that. It happens to him too.

But then he said "when he gets upset, he needs you the most. He needs you to be patient. You are so good with him when he is upset." And that struck me right in my core.

I need to be more patient.

Being a parent is frustrating sometimes. But I need to be patient. He is little. He is getting a tooth. That could have been why he got so upset. I have no idea what's going on. But it's my role as a parent to calm him down. And I want that role. I want to be the one who can calm him down. I will do it.

Sorry to be so sappy, but his words really hit hard that day and I had to share. After my serious pep talk, we finally arrived at Target and I had the best time shopping and Starbucks-ing with these two goof balls.

We headed home, ate some lunch, and left for Gymboree.

Since Mason's regular level 4 class was full, they thought it might be good for us to attend the level 5 class since he would be turning 22 months on Sunday. I didn't realize it was time to move to the next level, so I agreed. I'm actually glad I did because I met another really nice mom who has a daughter one month older than Mason.

After Gymboree, we went home, Mason took a nap, and then we headed over to Seth's mom's house for our niece, Emma's, birthday party. Well it was her birthday party, but we were celebrating Emma, her dad, and her grandpa as well.

Shawn's cake (Breaking Bad) // Emma's cake (Frozen) // Grandpa George's cake (photography)

auntie + niece matching scarves

We had a great time at the party! Mason's favorite part was the cake. For sure. Oh and helping himself to chips in a bowl on the table. Now that he's tall enough to reach the table by himself, he just helps himself. Kids.

Sunday we went to Gymboree again and then to Costco (where Mason ate his weight in free samples). We came home, ate lunch, Mason napped and Seth and I made progress on this...

Mason's table!

It's not quite finished yet, but we made major progress and I hope to complete my goal of it being done by the end of the month.

Seth's dad came over for dinner on Sunday night and we just had a nice night.

Until...

I hit the monitor button to check on Mason and comment to Seth how cute he was sleeping (I may be bias and I'm ok with that) and then all of a sudden he started moving around. And then crying. It's like he could tell I hit the button and I woke him. I let it go (cue the Frozen song getting stuck in your head for hours now... sorry!) for a sec and then realized he wasn't falling back asleep so I went up to his room to check on him. By now he was sitting up and crying. I had no idea what was wrong other than maybe a bad dream or the top molar that's coming in was hurting so I just started rubbing his back to make him feel better and know I was there. I am by no means a baby whisperer and it didn't work right away but soon he stopped crying and I was able to get him to lay down. Seth was right. I am good at being patient and calming Mason down. I sat down next to the crib (instead of standing over it) and reached my arms through the slats and rubbed his back and his head/hair. He calmed down. He started his cute little snoring. And all of a sudden, I couldn't get up. I didn't want to get up. I went from being so frustrated at the diaper change incident on Saturday to not being able to leave my baby's side after he fell asleep. Seriously, these little people do crazy things to your heart strings! After I could tell he was really sleeping, I jotted down some notes (because I didn't want to forget any details) and then I got up and went to bed myself. It was 10:45pm after all. I probably would have slept on the floor next to his crib had my alarm not been set to go off at 5am the next day and I didn't want to wake Mason up prematurely. I laid in bed for a little while and I think I might have fallen asleep, but then at midnight a heard more crying. I went back in to check on Mason and just rubbed his back and his head again and it calmed him down. This time was a lot faster (which I was thankful for since it was midnight). But I was also thankful that I was able to calm him down again so easily. 

It was a different ending to the weekend than I expected but it couldn't have ended any better because it re-affirmed what I needed to "hear".

I'm his mom. He needs me. I need him.

And I just love him so much.