Lessons Children Teach: Rolling with Changes

When you have a toddler, you spend a lot of time teaching: how to follow directions, how to pronounce words, how to count, and so on. What you don’t count on is how much your toddler will TEACH YOU.

Myles had one such lesson for me over the weekend. On Sunday, we had originally planned to go to a local music festival as a family. As the weekend went on though, I felt the housework snowballing and I really felt like I needed to stay home and catch up. Plus, the band we wanted to see most was going to play smack-dab in the middle of Myles’ nap time, and I didn’t want a cranky toddler ruining it for everyone. So I told Mike and Ben to go have fun, and Myles and I would stay home and nap (him) and get some work done (me).

My first mistake was COUNTING on Myles to take a nap. It’s seriously a rookie mistake and I should know better. Any time you really COUNT on your toddler to stick with their routine and nap when you want them to, they’ll do the exact opposite. (It’s pretty much science.) Myles was nodding off in the grocery cart when we were finishing some shopping, so I hurried home thinking he’d fall asleep in the car and then I could gently move him into the house.

NOPE. When we got home, he was WIDE awake and had a second wind, ready to go! I tried in vain to get him to nap, but he wasn’t having it. It was full-on play time. I felt frustration setting in — I had laundry and dishes to do and freelance projects to work on.

Sometimes, though, you have to just roll with it. Life throws you unexpected changes sometimes, and Myles gave me a good reminder: you can either get upset, frustrated, and angry, or you can make the best of the situation.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day. I kind of feel like Myles was tapping into the universe around us and giving me that reminder: Hey, Mom. Take some time to enjoy the outdoors today. Get some fresh air and take some time to play.

So that’s what we did. Myles played in his new sandbox, helped me rake, and got to have his first wheelbarrow ride. He rolled in the sand and poured it over his head. He fell in the mud. He got so, so dirty in that delightfully happy way that little boys do.

And you know what? I still got some things done! Near the end of last autumn, we had a couple trees trimmed in our yard, and winter came before we got to clean up the debris. So in between giving wheelbarrow rides and brushing sand off, I got to rake up some of the leaves and sticks that were all over the yard. (Hopefully now some grass will grow in the patchy spots!) It was really win-win. Even Gracie-dog got to be outside with us and enjoy the day.

We all came in sweaty, dirty and tired. It wasn’t what I had planned, but it was exactly what I had needed.

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