In Between the Destruction

Oh the joys of parenting...

I wonder how many times this has been said? 

Noah is 19 months and changing every day. I love love love all of his new words! One thing I don't so much love is Destructoman (yes, I turned it into a name). I don't know if it's a boy thing, or if it's a Noah thing, but what I do know is that all children are different and we are rolling right along with it and we will power through :) This may sound silly, but one thing I have learned is that everything is a phase, therefore we are just going to power through and do our best as parents. It's tough though.  I think it's difficult to find the balance between disciplining too much and letting things slide. With certain things it seems the more we say something to the effect of "no," the more he wants to push the envelope. We try to stick with positive statements of what he can do, but once again, easier said than done. Lately he likes to be destructive, but the good news is that it's usually when he is getting tired of doing something, almost as if he doesn't quite know how to transition.  The magna doodle, now gets flung back and forth, and almost everything would be thrown if we let it. I feel really passionate about teaching him the right way to use things and I really really really don't want him to grow up with a destructiveness to him. Yet, once again, the balance between it all is hard. 

But...

Tonight I treasured a precious moment in between the destruction as I was putting Noah to bed. I was standing up snuggling him and singing 'Jesus Loves Me" and he was just looking around his dark room (he usually does this before he lays his head down). Then he took his soft hand and slowly put it on my face, followed by a kiss on the lips. It was such a sweet moment, and in that second I felt so thankful for all the moments like these that can be clouded by the destruction. 

Well, I will leave you with the good stuff. I'm quite sure you didn't come here to listen to me rant about parenting ;) but rather for some random iPhone photos!!

snuggling the kitty (for real). Shocking...but 9 times out of 10 he is very sweet with her.

Rainy Fall day :)

Christmas Fort (up a few days early because Daddy was just too excited to add the lights).