Toddler time

I wrote this post sometime since the last time I posted and forgot to actually post it. I think I was planning on going back and editing it to make it more concise and readable and never got around to it. Today I was talking with my mom who mentioned that she missed my blog since I hadn't written in a while, so I decided to go ahead and post it while I have a chance. I'm trying to live a little more on toddler time, which as you will see in this post means more time enjoying my son, but a little less for other things like editing what I write.

Last night I took Bug-a-Boo for a walk. It’s pretty fun now that he’s walking well enough that we can do this. As we walked I realized how much I am often in a hurry for no real reason. Walking with my son reminds me to slow way down. He took the time to notice everything – that is until he saw the pond. Then he took off as quick as his chubby little toddler legs would carry him, making a bee-line for the water. Of course, I held his hand, and when we got close, talked to him about the pond and all that we were seeing. He didn’t want to talk though. He wanted to jump right in. So what that there was a small drop down from where we were standing to the surface. So what that it is the middle of January and cold. So what that it was deep and he can’t swim. He wanted to swim in that pond. Of course, I held tight to his hand and didn’t let him. It kind of made me think though of all the times that I press ahead, so determined to do something that I am sure is right and my heavenly Father won’t let me. Sometimes I feel betrayed. After all, my heavenly Father is supposed to grant my requests, right? Yet, just as I knew that playing in the pond would be bad for my son, sometimes my Father knows that what I want will be bad for me, so he keeps me from jumping in over my head.

Bug-a-Boo was not easily dissuaded from jumping in the pond, so I rerouted our path away from it. A boat filled with water that was frozen over into ice quickly caught his eye, and he decided to explore that instead. Then he found what to his toddler eyes appeared to be the mother-load – a great, big, muddy puddle. You may recall that the other day I wrote about teaching him to splash in our tiny, rather clean puddles in our driveway. Well, he had not forgotten, and here was a puddle that he could splash in with no problem. At first the instincts kicked up that wanted to scream out – no, that’s all muddy! You’ll get filthy! Plus it’s too cold to get wet! Yet the line from a children’s book kept running through my head – “a puddle is for splashing.” He was bundled up in such warm and rather waterproof layers that I didn’t think the wet would hurt him, and mud, well, he’s a boy! That’s why I buy only the best laundry detergent. So I pushed down the voices that were screaming no and let him stomp happily away. About this time I heard a noise and turned around to see a neighbor walking his dog and just watching quietly. I cheerily said hello, and he just looked at me and said “hi”. I was sure that he was thinking, “That crazy lady. I can’t believe she’s letting her son splash in the puddle.” Oh well. The next thing I know – splash! Bug-a-Boo was sitting in the puddle! Yikes. That was a bit much, so I quickly stood him back up, and we began the walk home – on toddler time. I mean do you have any idea how fascinating something like an acorn on the ground is to an 18 month old boy? And did you know that if you pick it up and drop it, it will roll downhill? Then of course, you just have to go get it to be sure it is still the same acorn. Then there’s the joy of mailboxes – did you know that everyone on our street has one, and they’re all just a little different? And barking dogs – wouldn’t you just love to meet all of them? (Again I stepped in and kept us moving from that one.) I found myself wanting to hurry the boy up. I mean, none of this was the least bit fascinating for me. We had taken our walk, and now it was time to get home. I checked his hands and cheeks, and they seemed to still be plenty warm under the mud splotches, so I asked myself, what’s the hurry? Why do we have to get home? What is so urgent that we can’t check out these things? I could come up with no good answer, so we continued on, on toddler time. It may be slow, but I hope that it will help my son to always be observant and curious, taking time for what he enjoys. This world is fast enough. It’s kind of nice now and then to slow things down to toddler time.