It's All About The Love
Two big milestones today.
One: Waking up this morning I rolled over and Sofia was rubbing her eyes while trying to brush the fly-away, red locks from her face. I smiled at her. She smiled at me. I said, "Good morning, Loaf. I love you, baby." She grinned again and pointed at me and said, "No, love youuuuu, Mama!" And then she repeated it a dozen or so times while I hugged her tight, all teary-eyed. Good way to start the day.
Two: David was having a time out upstairs after having done something I specifically asked him not to and warned that if he did it, he would have a time out. He accepted it well enough and had gone up to the bedroom. But then he came down before the time out was up, thinking that we were having fun without him. I told him to go back up and I would be right up to speak with him. He burst into tears, sobbing loudly. I went up to talk with him and before I could even get a word out he sputtered, "You don't love me anymoooooore!!" This also got me teary-eyed. Not a good way to start the afternoon.
So they're both learning about love. And will continually be learning. Sofia knows it's something that makes us smile and David knows it's a wonderful, powerful thing, but it also causes pain. I'm still figuring it out myself, but I'm closer than I've ever been. I know this: there is nothing in the world so complicated, so overwhelming, so terrifying yet so sublime as the love for your own kids. And I don't care what anyone (are you listening, David?) says.
One: Waking up this morning I rolled over and Sofia was rubbing her eyes while trying to brush the fly-away, red locks from her face. I smiled at her. She smiled at me. I said, "Good morning, Loaf. I love you, baby." She grinned again and pointed at me and said, "No, love youuuuu, Mama!" And then she repeated it a dozen or so times while I hugged her tight, all teary-eyed. Good way to start the day.
Two: David was having a time out upstairs after having done something I specifically asked him not to and warned that if he did it, he would have a time out. He accepted it well enough and had gone up to the bedroom. But then he came down before the time out was up, thinking that we were having fun without him. I told him to go back up and I would be right up to speak with him. He burst into tears, sobbing loudly. I went up to talk with him and before I could even get a word out he sputtered, "You don't love me anymoooooore!!" This also got me teary-eyed. Not a good way to start the afternoon.
So they're both learning about love. And will continually be learning. Sofia knows it's something that makes us smile and David knows it's a wonderful, powerful thing, but it also causes pain. I'm still figuring it out myself, but I'm closer than I've ever been. I know this: there is nothing in the world so complicated, so overwhelming, so terrifying yet so sublime as the love for your own kids. And I don't care what anyone (are you listening, David?) says.
posted by Kristen @ 10:47 PM
3 Comments:
At 8:06 AM,
Anonymous said…
Totally agreed.
At 10:36 AM,
Anonymous said…
You know, I REMEMBER doing the whole "you don't love me" thing to my own mom when I was that age. And strangely enough, I even remember that I really didn't believe that, but in my limited vocabulary, had to find SOME way to communicate my frustration. So few words, so much to say...
At 11:04 PM,
ErinG said…
Something kind of like that happened just recently happened in our home. My 2 year old daughter has been delayed in speech and so she is just now starting to talk. The other night she she told me "love oo" for the first time when I tucked her in. It melted my heart. My 4 year old daughter has been sick for the last few days and this morning as I was on the phone making a doctor's appointment for her I heard her asking my husband if we were going to get rid of her. He asked her why we would get rid of her. She said because she was sick we wouldn't want her anymore. We explained to her that we still love her even though she is sick and we would never get rid of her. I have no idea what gave her that idea.
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