Sarah has been a handful the last few weeks. I was trying to figure out if it was me or if indeed possibly she was being more needy and screamy. I know she's nearing the two year mark but it's still so early for terrible two's! It seems like anytime she doesn't get what she wants she screams. I have been researching forums and I feel better knowing it's completely normal. I just have to figure out the best way to deal with it. After some mulling over I've come to the conclusion that she's bored. She's bored and needs to be interacted with in different ways now. Six months ago I could sit her on my lap and make faces and let her play with my necklace, but now things are different. She wants to be exploring, figuring things out, coloring, smelling flowers...and that's in just 5 minutes!!
An example of this comes from a moment we had together today. I was busy making some bread for our spaghetti dinner. I just need five minutes to knead and throw the dough in the oven but Sarah was grumpily waving her jacket at my legs. I realized that I had been inadvertantly ignoring her. Possibly it's an instinctual motherhood "protect-your-sanity-by-choosing-the-battle-to-confront" moment but maybe it was me just being a jerk, I'm not sure. So instead of trying to console her by saying, "one more minute, Sarah" I took a moment to find out what she wanted. And you know what it was? She wanted me to zip up her jacket so that she could figure out how to UN-zip it. Now, that's when I felt like a jerk. How many other times have I gotten frustrated and angry at her little whines for attention when possibly all she wanted was a simple favor that she couldn't express in words. I want to cry just thinking about it.
I digress...I decided that Sarah needed a fun activity toy that was both interactive and something she LOVED. So I went to Wally-World and found a little swing. It was $20, possibly the most I've spent on a toy for her. Wait, maybe second most. When we got home with it (after a scream-filled ride home) Joel surprised us by coming home early. I was excited about the swing, but he was even MORE excited to get it up in the tree. After some crazy redneck-engineering we now have a very safe and awesome swing for our active little girl. Take a look and admire people. You won't see anything like this on the HGTV channel. This is 100% homemade goodness! Thank you husband of mine! We like to call it the redneck tree branch!
2 comments:
Hi this is Jennis at my friend sarah's house. I would say you have to find a new name for your swing arm, it is too well constructed to be red neck. now if you hung a pully and an engine off that arm you have a red neck engine hoist. hahaha. I LIKE IT!!! nice work.
so what's funny about this as i look at it again is that Joel looks like he's rigging while sarah is in the swing, I'm sure it is already secure but it is funny that he's up there putting on the final touches but she is already waiting for her first push. You guys sure are cute.
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