Lego Warfare Breaks All of the Family Rules

Tonight, a certain three-year-old hit me in the face with a stack of Legos.

It was as much my fault as his.

He wanted me to build a school with him and I wanted to sneak a look at a website. More specifically, he wanted the complete and undivided attention of his mama, and I wanted to multitask.

It’s no surprise that a preschooler needs lots and lots of attention. Mine is no exception. And he’s been making this clear to us lately – using his toolkit of both positive and negative behaviors – he is in a very needy place. One minute he’s running up to me to “tell me a secret” and yelling out, “I love you Mom!” and the next minute it’s, “NO! I don’t want to [fill in the blank]!” Or, he’s whacking me with a stack of blocks and then bursting into tears.

We’ve had a busy, somewhat chaotic summer. Change has been our constant companion as we put our house on the market, look at other houses to buy, celebrated a big third birthday with friends and family, and then started a new preschool on top of it all (more on that in another post…now you know why I have not written a thing on this blog for months).

And even though Casey is an extremely articulate little boy, he’s still working on his “people skills.” Learning how to use words to get his way, and how to control his recently discovered firey temper. But here I am, the grown up, and I can hear him loud and clear. He’s telling me everything he needs and I just need to keep listening. Keep being patient. And keep talking through the hitting, grunting, shouting, and loving so he can know that I am listening.

I’m doing my best to keep reminding and reinforcing our unlimited love for him, our joy in being part of his life, and the basic guidelines for being a part of modern civilization. We use three simple rules we set up a year ago to help us all navigate the ups and downs of growing up in this crazy world:

1. Be kind
2. Be safe
3. Have fun

This is working well, though some days are more trying than others. But at the endof the day, this kid is still just blowing my mind with his capacity for joy, his creativity and inventiveness, and his blossoming personality and courageous spirit.

I’ll gladly take the bumps and bruises (both literal and figurative ones) for they are always over shadowed by the love.