Thursday, August 19, 2010

The spirited child

I was reading on the Internet that there are 3 types of children.
1)The shy one
2)The easy going one
3)The spirited one

Of course, all children will have a little bit of all 3 at different times. Our Max is defiantly the more spirited one. High energy and high maintenance, and I love every bit of him and who he is.
I think it's funny they call it the "spirited" one. Makes me laugh.
Shaun and Max were at his moms house last night, she was calling him.....quite the character. She was getting a kick out of his antics.
Here's a little bit of what my "spirited" child did today. I went to put in a load of laundry. I had him out of my sight for maybe 5 minutes. When I came back he had pulled a chair out, climbed up it and then onto our table. Where I had put the dogs water bowl. It's a big bowl. He had dumped it out and was splashing in the water and squealing with delight. The water was dripping off the table and all over the floor. He had also thrown all my now wet papers off the table.

Then I gave Max some crayons and was showing him how to color in a coloring book. They say that it's good to introduce this to them. He loves crayons! He loves to hold them and then eat them. I was trying to teach him how we use crayons. I had to keep telling him not to put them in his mouth. I walked away to see if he would listen. I kept looking back at him and telling him each time he tried to put it in his mouth, I would tell him, "no, we don't eat crayons."
Here's where his "spirited" side comes in. He gets up, throwing the now empty box of crayons to the floor in defiance and runs down the hall with a fist full of crayons. I come across the kitchen and down the hall to follow him. I found him trying to hide behind my bed stuffing all the crayons into his mouth as fast as he could. hahahaha! Seriously?! He cracks me up. Then he had a melt down when I took the crayons away and had another freak out moment when he realized that a mouth full of crayons doesn't taste good.

Then I found him in the bathroom with toilet paper unraveled all over the floor. I mean all over the floor. When he saw me, he ran to the other door to the bathroom and frantically tried to open the door and escape. He looked so funny! I started to talk to him and ask him how all the toilet paper got all over the floor. He wouldn't look at me and was acting like he couldn't hear me. Still trying desperately to open the door and pretend like he had nothing to do with it. HA! I finally got him to acknowledge my existence and told him to help me clean it up. Which he then turned and looked at the mess like it was the first time he had seen it and he put his arms up as if to say, How did this happen? I have to try so hard not to laugh! Mind you, all 3 of these stories happened before 9 in the morning. This happens in minutes. It's not like I'm not watching him. I do have things to do and I think he's fine playing for a minute. Sometimes he is fine playing for a minute, then other times, He's sneaky. ;) I try and keep all the doors closed.

The other night Shaun and I went out on a date with his siblings. Our neighbor was watching Max for us. When we came back she said that he cried for the first hour and a half! That's terrible! Then she said that when she had opened her front door. He hurried and grabbed his water and his bag of snacks and headed out the door as fast as he could, going across the lawn and to our house. Ha! I can just see him doing this. With his half run/walk, wobbling here and there as he tries to move faster then his little body knows how.

Thanks for making me laugh Max! Your "spirited" ways can be tough and a challenge for me sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way because then it wouldn't be you. You're an explorer, focused on what you want to do and where you want to go. You're very persistent and I feel like I need more then 2 arms to try and detour you from whatever it is your trying to get into or want to get to.
I love watching you learn and grow and become the funny little person you are. :) Your smile can brighten any day.



2 comments:

Chance's Mom said...

Let's hear it for spirited children! I LOVE spirited children!
Seriously though, your child is either mellow or spirited? It seems like there should be a medium doesn't it?

Chance's Mom said...

We LOvE Max!