Just when I thought I might go crazy

Keenan has been a bit of a workout lately. He makes this incredibly aggravating noise (honestly, I now love the sound of nails on a chalkboard) in his throat which we have come to call whinging (pronounced win-ging). It kind of sounds like ehhhhh, ehhhhh, ehhhhhhhh and if he goes long enough it ends up as a waaaaahhhhhhhh eh eh WAAAAAAAHHHHHH. He does it between the times when he’s being engaged. Many times daily I run through the list of “Are all his crucial needs being met?” which 9 times out of 10 they are (hey, I’m not perfect you know!). In the end he just wants to be entertained a la “I don’t want to play with my toys but I want you to play with them right in front of my face while I watch”. Don’t get me wrong we’re not the type to leave our kid unattended with the Playstation and a myriad of other toys and expect him to get the job done himself. I just would like to be able to go for a pee or brush my teeth to the sound of a cooing baby not a whinging one. So we’re walking down the path of this phase pulling out all the old tricks and always inventing new ones along the way to keep our little guy amused. And I guess it’s that concept of this being a phase that he’ll grow out of that keeps us sane. Just today I heard him wake up from his morning nap and I peeked in on him to see what he was up to. He was keeping himself perfectly content by sucking on his toes and waving his hands in front of his face and did so for about 15 minutes.

So now he’s down for the ultra rare afternoon nap and this is my time. During the morning nap I fly thru the house like a banshee trying to check off as many things as I can on my self imposed, huge, long list of domestic responsibilities. But when he goes down for an afternoon nap I do a little happy dance, make some tea and gear gown. This is when I get to surf the net, blog, tweeze my eyebrows, frown in the mirror over my grey hairs and possibly string a couple of beads together. Today I came across an article and video on the internet that made all my fussing over Keenan’s whinging seem…well like I was whinging.

Please check out this link for the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt. It will inspire you to see the tough times with your children through new eyes. At least it did for me.