I don't know if it is because my attention has been stretched so far with this one so that he has had to rely on his own devices too many times, or if he was just born independant. With Your Royal Highness, he was born 10 weeks early, and was in the NICU for a few weeks, so when he came home, it was all YRH all the time. I never let that child out of my grasp, let alone my sight. Now, I am not a helicopter mom by any means, but I am in his face a lot because I worry about him. I have been worried about him from the beginning, so it has been ingrained in my relationship with him.
With the twins it was different. I was on point with them, but not so worried. They were healthy babies and so it was a whole new experience. I was still young enough to worry if they were breathing at night, but not so young and naive that I would wake them up like I did before, to make SURE they were breathing. But at their ripe old age of 6 months old, I found out I was pregnant with Little Man, and EVERYTHING changed. I relied on the Admiral way more to help than before. Before I was too worried for the duties to be 50/50. It was more like 85/15, and none of that was Admiral's fault, it was all wound-too-tight me. But with the girls still not sleeping through the night yet, and pregnancy tired setting in, I needed more help.
So then enter Little Man. My 10 pound giant of a baby. He was so adorable and cute, and FINE (no issues at all) and had such a laid back little disposition that I didn't worry about him too much at all. Now he did start having issues with asthma at around 6 months old, so that was a little nerve wracking, but other than that and eczema, we were golden. He slept through the night earlier, mostly because by now I had been getting up with babies for like a year and a half, and I was then chasing twin 21 month toddlers around the house and was too tired to hear him. But he was a very good baby.
Fast forward to him being about 15 months old.
We took the whole family to the pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkin. Where we go is a farm that has acres and acres of land. Tons of pumpkins among other things. We go out to the pumpkin patch part, and it is smack dab in the middle of the feild. THe kids all vacate the wagon, and look around. I look over, and Little Man has gotten himself out, and is not walking, but RUNNING down the isle of the field. Just running. Like he is running away. I wait, because I figure, at some point he will turn around and be like, "Oh no, mommy is far away." but he is getting farther and farther away. I realize that he is not going to turn around ever. The Admiral takes off after him and brings him back, and he has the look on his face upon his return as if his plans had been foiled.
Three months later....Christmas.
We go to the mall to get our annual picture with Santa. The year before Little Man was just an infant, so he did not seem to care if it was Santa holding him or me, as long as he was warm and fed. This particular year, the mall was packed. It was a weekend, and it was stupid to try, but The Admiral had been working like crazy and it was the only time he had for us to go together. We get to the line and it was like the scene from A Christmas Story, "The line stretched all the way back to Tara Haute". We had a lot of waiting to do. In the mean time, YRH was taking the twins down to at least SEE Santa with other kids so they would warm up to him before the big event. Thubellina does not care for Santa. So that was helpful. I held the spot, and the Admiral was following Little man while he walked around the mall to burn off that never ending toddler need to roam. After I get closer to the destination, The Admiral comes back with a look on his face that was half disbelief, and half amazement. Here is his story:
" So I let Little man go, and he was going fast. He was running. I was getting tired, and thought 'I will just see how far he will go before he decides to turn around and look for me.' He NEVER ONCE did. He got a good 25-30 feet ahead of me, and turned the corner into JC Penny's. So I ran ahead because I couldn't see him anymore, and he was just walking on, like he knew where he was going. I finally grabbed him, but honestly, this kid doesn't care if we are there or not!" Last winter...
I take my kids to the library pretty regularly. Up until recently I would keep Little Man in a stroller just for my own peace of mind. This particular time I did not bring it, because honestly, the child is almost 3 by this time, and he should be able to handle quick outings without being contained. I mean eventually he will grow out of the stroller and will need to know to stick with me. Well we get there, and he takes off running as soon as we get in. Mini Me looks at me, "Mooom. Little man took off again. That boy..." and shakes her head. Honestly it is scary how much this child is like me. So I follow him at a quick clip and see him head to the children's section, (good, that is good) and there in the middle of the room is a group of very nice Asian (I want to say Japanese) women talking in a circle. Little Man runs into the middle of them and with a huge smile on his face, shouts very loudly at them "Well hi!!!"
These very nice ladies all laughed and said, "Oh, so cute." and patted him on the head. I ran over, and said, "I am sorry. Isn't it a shame how shy my son is?" and pulled him away. The looks they gave me told me that my sarcasm was slightly lost in the translation.
Other incidents have happend on several occasions. I can't even remember them all. I will have to say, out of all of them, today takes the cake...
Again, at the library.
I have all of my own children, plus the 2 year old that I watch, and her little baby sister in a stroller with me. We all make it into the library just fine. They are all a few steps ahead of me, but walking and talking to each other. I liberally lecture them before we go, "You must stay with me at all times. You must always be able to see me. You must never wander out of the children's section."
We get there and there is a group from a preschool there doing some sort of project, but really that is about it. So Mini me and toddler that I sit for make a bee line for the tablets they have available to play some games. Thumbellina and Little Man are getting settled in to play some puzzels and magnet games.
(Oh, I really need to preface this with the following: Last week our theme for the week to study was dinosaurs. All of a sudden little man has fallen in love with them He wants to know what all of them are, their names, and what they eat. Any time he sees one he gets very excited.)
So I start pushing the stroller up and down the isles looking for this week's theme, firefighters. The shelves are short, so I can see over them, and watch the other kids. There is also a librarian that sits at the entrance to the children's section, so no one can run away. I love our library. I go up and down looking for books, and then glance up at the kids: They are just as I left them. So I go up another isle looking for books, glance back at the kids: just where I left them. I go up a third isle, look for books, glance back up....no Little man. Of course. I look around for his little fuzzy towhead. I see the librarian two isles over walking up the isle saying, "well they are here somewhere, let's find them." with Little man following right behind her, with a very determined look on his face. She stops and says, "Aha! Here they are. Let's get you set up at a table." and takes him to a small table close by. As she walks away, I head over to him. On the table is a very large pile of books all about dinosaurs, and Little Man sitting there with a Cheshire cat-like smile on his face.
This child scares the hell out of me....
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