He Jumped Out!

On Sunday afternoon, Cole jumped out of his crib!  He smacked his nose on the hardwood floors below him, and thankfully he escaped with only a scuffed up pink nose.   So we took the crib apart and put it in the guest room for now.  No more crib for Cole...and no more injuries!  

I've also been learning a lot during the last week or so about my life now with two boys.  I've been flustered by lots of small things that together snowball into a large mess...at least according to me.    I was talking about this to a friend at church on Sunday, a woman who has teenagers and is a principal at a local elementary school.   She gave me some blogworthy advice.   She told me that one of the things she works on with parents at her school the most is the very thing I was struggling with Cole about.  He seems to learn something one day and tank the next day.  One day is fabulous and the next is junk.  Ug.  My friend told me that most parents (myself included) expect kids to continually grow in a positive way.  Picture the long upward part at the beginning of a roller coaster.   In fact, she said, that is not indicative of true child development, or I guess human development, too.  She encouraged me to think of Cole's learning and growing as lines continually rising and falling similar to the lines on the machine that monitors labor contractions as you wait for your baby to be born.   Whew.  I needed to be reminded of that.  Expect the ups and the downs.  It's all part of it.  And I needed to remind myself of how wonderful Cole really is instead of focusing on the things I wish he'd do or learn but isn't doing or learning yet.    I used to tell my fourth graders at VCS when they received a low grade or had trouble grasping something that if they knew everything already, they wouldn't need to be in fourth grade.  Same is true now in my new world of being a parent.  

One more piece of advice from my friend.  She said that she often prays this prayer that Ruth Graham (Billy Graham's wife) prayed at night, especially when her husband was out of town on business, which was a lot!  "Lord, please help me and my kids forget that today ever happened!"  So I prayed that last night, and today has been great.  Both boys are sound asleep, my house is picked up, and our water heater is being fixed (yahoo!). Who knows if it's because of my prayer.  I think it's just that the prayer helped my perspective.   God has definitely been faithful to sustain us during these myriad transitions we've been experiencing!