Gunnar is Awesome/A Turd

Seriously, he is.

Here's my Big Thought on kids, and on being a parent:

There is no "easiest" stage, and there is no "hardest" stage.

As soon as you get the hang of one thing, you become clueless about some new thing.

As soon as one easy thing starts to become harder, one harder thing starts to become easier.

As soon as one new habit/disciplinary problem begins, one totally cute/fun aspect of their personality emerges.

I could go on and on about the ironies of parenting.  Oh, here's another one.  There are some days, when all  day long, all you can think about is, "I cannot WAIT to drop this kid off at his grandparents for the night, and have a break..and then the second you drop him off, you think, "Oh man.  I'm gonna miss him so much!  I can't wait to go pick him up in the morning".  (well, and then you have a margarita, some queso, and an actual conversation with your husband, and you think, "I DO miss him, but I think I CAN wait until the morning to pick him up ;)  )

Anyway, the last few months, Gunnar has tried our patience possibly more than he ever has before.  He is strong headed.  He is insistent. He is bound and determined to do what he wants to do. (He is his daddy).  He is fussy.  He is whiny.  He is defiantly disobedient many times.  He develops some new and random fear every week (this week it is "cats"), messing up his bedtime and naptime, and causing us to constantly revamp our plan, our strategy, and our rules of what he can and cannot watch, read and listen to.

But....

He is the most fun he has ever been.  He is TOTALLY a REAL member of the family now.  What I mean  is, he's not just a baby that gets taken care of, but doesn't contribute much to what goes on.  Nope. He has a personality, and he has opinions, and he has things to talk about. He has things  he wants to do, and asks to do.  He has people he likes, and people he doesn't like. He has a sense of humor...he can intentionally tell jokes, and kid around with us now, and we love it.  He says funny little phrases and expressions like, "Oh wait, actually...nevermind" (that's a mama phrase, by the way), and,"hey, let's hang out for a bit", and, "I'm so excited, I can hardly wait!".  He can be reasoned with.  He understands a LOT more about the world, and how it works.  He remembers things that he is taught.  He uses words like, "stupendous". He pats my hair and says, "it's ok mama, it'll be alright", when I discipline him about something, which is kind of condescending, but still pretty funny.

Anyway, I just love that little guy to the moon and back, and have become so aware lately of what a NON-baby he is, and what a KID he has become, and while in some ways I mourn that a bit, I mainly just love it.  I could kiss on his chubby cheeks and fuzzy little blonde head all day long, and mostly, I do.

And I also still think that he's a total turd.