3rd year parent

Parenting. The terrible twos. The terrific twos. Whatever you want to call it. Has life been easier or harder since Annabel has hit her twos? Am I an expert - no way. Once you think you've mastered and understood something about their growth and development, they throw another curveball at you. Some things, like her communication, eating, general brain development has been great. She is turning out to be a very observant little girl and can pick up skills really quick. Other things like her being hangry, battles before bedtime, testing and going over her boundaries intentionally has been trying times. After all that, she will sleep and have a nightmare and yell out for "Ma Ma"... and she becomes your little baby again.

Daycare has been an interesting experience. The staff and kids there have been great and very supportive. Overall she has improved a lot, becoming more confident and making new friends - loves the songs, dancing and instruments in particular. She doesn't even say bye to me and runs off to her friends. The exception is when dad drops her off. She still manages a cry. The bugs that come with that isn't so great. I've never been so sick in my life - well for a long time anyway. The first few months were horrible with her screaming, being angry when she came home and not leaving us - at all. I was almost considering to take her out from daycare and really regretted it.

Deciding whether to go to four days of work was a struggle too. However, I am thankful that I am able to cut 1 hour off each day to make up for the fourth day. The shorter hours have been great where I can get home faster and leave later. I'm grateful that God has given me a great place to work in and are generally supportive of family needs. My manager once said to me when I had to make a decision about a job, "Don't worry about your job. Do what's right for your family. Your work can replace you but your family can't". I almost burst into tears because I know how true it is. Life is short. Life happens. There's no discrimination when it comes to natural or unnatural disasters and diseases like cancer. I had to be reminded that my purpose here is to prepare for an eternal life.

Anyway, back to parenting. 

I find now the hardest thing to do is to control my temper. I don't know if it's the hot weather or what, but sometimes it's so hard to not get frustrated when you've asked her to sleep and she runs away or to share her toys a million times - and then she just gives you the cheekiest smile and says sorry - but you know she's not. It's also hard to know when she's genuinely made a mistake - like spilling things - or when she's done it on purpose. 

So as they become little human beings, I have to remind myself that we are both human. She's still learning and I'm still learning and ask for God's guidance. I really like this video from Pastor Francis Chan and his wife Lisa as they keep it real. The parenting part is a chapter from their book "You and me forever". The book itself is a marriage guidance book that focuses on getting your relationship right with God. They also have an app where you can download the book with videos and questions for you to complete.

 
Session 6 from You and Me Forever on Vimeo.

There will be days when I'm thankful that I have such a lovely daughter, then there are days that I think I can't make it and one is enough - haha. I guess it's all part of the journey and I really pray for God's grace and help. :)