When Charles Dickens penned that opening line of his famous Tale of Two Cities he was talking about London and Paris during the time of the French Revolution (if my memory serves me correctly). However, I think he must also have known the life of a parent during the toddler years.
Ruth has yet to turn 16 months old, far from the terrible twos you read about in scary magazines like Parent and American Baby, yet Ruth is showing us that being a parent of a toddler is both the best of times and the worst of times. Today we say that every cloud has a silver lining. Ruth is one big thunderstorm cloud with a huge, beautiful silver lining.
As Ruth learns more and more words Brian and I expect her to use these words all the time. However, Ruth will say "drink" one minute and the next just grunt pointing to something in the direction of her cup or our cup or the door, we can't really tell. I can ask her to go get the green blanket off the leather chair and she will fetch it for me. Then I can tell her to pick up a toy and she cries and puts her head down as if the assignment is going to cause her great pain. She will entertain herself quite well going from toy to toy, climbing on furniture, going through bags. At other times she is quite fussy for no apparent reason. Her fits are the worst thing on the planet. But her smiles and laughs and leg kisses and nose rubs and giggles and playing chase and hugs and talking are the best things on the planet.
I think Charles Dickens knew that without hard times one cannot truly appreciate the good times. That, in fact, during the worst of times we will also find the best of times in our lives.
So today, during your Paris times know that the London times are coming. And you won't even have to cross a channel to find them.
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2 comments:
I promise you are not the only one! We go through the same thing daily. Eston will make up his mind that he wants his dad to change his diaper. If I do it, it's the end of the world, because it was "dada's turn."
It really is the challenges in life that make us more aware of the blessings. There is a line from the Nichole Nordeman song "Sunrise" that I love that goes "How could I know the morning if I knew not midnight?"
My kids are monkeys right now, and they've decided that the most fun thing is to climb on the couch...only they like to walk up there and try to propel themselves over the sides...scary! So, today I decided to take all of the cushions off so they can play up there, and not fall off. Now what to do about the coffee table? When we try to keep them from exploring things the way that they want to, that's when they get the most unraveled.
I think the hardest thing about toddlerhood is that there is such a huge gap between what they can comprehend and what they can communicate. Emma has started to throw fits. Alec isn't there yet...he'll just whine...but Emma is a drama queen.
I'm glad that you are able to see all of the good things in the midst of the not-so-good ones. I know that you and Brian are fantastic parents!
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