Skip to main content

Reminders


Paige is my quality time kid.  She needs my attention, one-on-one, regularly.  We first realized her love language after a trip to Disney World when she was three.  As we walked to the van, we asked her what her favorite part of the day had been.  After listing off nearly every single highlight of the Magic Kingdom, only have her shake her head no, she finally spilled the beans.  Her favorite part.  Just being with us.  She couldn't have spelled it out any clearer.  Our time with her matters.  Our attention feeds her security. 

I should have known.  A year earlier, when her little sister entered the picture, she did her best to make her needs known.  I can not tell you how many times Brooklyn was punched in the head while trying to nurse.  (Which may explain a few things about our flighty redhead, but that's another post.)  Even after the initial jealousy subsided, Paige still struggled to share my attention.  Every time Brooklyn hit a new milestone, Paige acted out.  If she didn't get her way in the mall she would grab everything within arms reach of her stroller and throw it at me.  If we put her in her room for time out, she would empty her dresser and pull every hanger out of the closet creating a heap of clothing in the middle of the room.  I often kid that Paige would have been a perfect only child.  Many of her struggles stem from her need to be focused on.  God knew that she needed siblings to refine that in her. 

I have said before that Paige has matured greatly in the past year.  Her pleas for attention have become less extreme.  We are no longer dragging her screaming into school or buckling her into a carseat just to keep her in time out.  She is writing her feelings out. No matter how ugly.  She still yells and stomps and makes poor choices, but she is editing herself.  With her maturity, I have lost sight of her need for my attention.  Isn't that how it is?  When the struggle subsides we relax.  The things that used to top our priority list fall a bit and we lose focus.  This morning Paige reminded me of her need for my attention.  In a very subtle and comical way, she put herself back on my list.  This was all it took.



Pegs, I heard you (and I laughed).  Mommy date is on the calender.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changes

"This pool is shady.  I NEED sun, so get back over here!" she scorned.  A mom who's little girl just wanted to play with her friend.  A mom who couldn't see past her need for perfect tan lines.  A mom who was missing the joy of vacation and was, in turn, stealing it from her daughter. My heart breaks.  I wish I could make her see just how much she is missing.  I wish her daughter could spend an afternoon with a mom who was completely engaged.  I wish she could know the joy of splashing with her children.  The memories that far outlast a tan.  I've traded pina coladas for snow cones, novels for sand castles, and late nights for early mornings.  My tan lines aren't even, my people watching has been narrowed to three little ones, and more money was spent at The Children's Place than Banana Republic.  Vacation has changed.  It's not that I have given up on any of the original ways of vacation.  They are ce...
3 comments
Read more

Changed

I suck at prayer.  If you need someone to pray for you, I'm probably not your girl.  Sure, I'll say I'll do it.  I'll even have good intentions to get it done.  But I won't.  The light will turn green, the kids will yell, the phone will ring and I will forget.  Every time.  My personal prayer life isn't much better.  It's embarrassing to say, but I'm too rushed, tired, and distracted.  The thought of prayer seldom crosses my mind. Apparently, God has been noticing.  In the past few months I have found myself on the outskirts of situation after situation that lead me straight to my knees.  Not a passing "Please God work in that situation" way, but a "My words have run dry and still I pray" kind of way.  I have prayed myself to sleep and then awoken with an urgency to pray again.  I have wept as I pleaded with God to work miracles.  I have prayed that God's hand would be seen and I have prayed that Satan's lies would ...
3 comments
Read more

Mama's Sick

That's right, you heard it here first.  This mama's SICK!  I have fought off the runny nose-sore throat-head in a vice germs for months on end, but at last I have succumb.  Of course this misfortune must come on the same day as Ohio State's Bowl Game.  Try as he might, my dear husband has zero ability to hear ANYTHING that is happening when a football game is on.  Trust me.  I banged quite a few dishes around in the kitchen.  I even sighed loudly as I carried laundry in to fold.  Still...nothing.  He really does mean well.  He attempted to help with bedtime, but all three of those ankle bitters insisted on "mommy" putting them to bed.  He told me to go to bed as soon as he got home, but really ?  Can you imagine what the house would look like by morning???  I could have asked for help.  I should have asked.  Isn't that what my mother has been hammering into my head for the past 9 years?  "He doesn't see...
2 comments
Read more