Thankful

Mom-E and I have always believed the conventional wisdom that "a hyper toddler is a tired toddler."

More recently, someone told me (anectodally) that toddlers/preschoolers are much more oppositional during the 6 months before their birthday than they are for the 6 months after their birthday.

Why this would be the case I have no idea. I was pretty skeptical, as even the magic of Christmas and/or birthday presents (and parties) have an average shelf-life of about 2 weeks.

However, I'm coming to believe that there's at least an element of truth here.

For the past few weeks, Big Brother has been unbelievably polite and thankful (between just a few major outbursts), often without prompting. Maybe it just took 1,000,001 reminders to say "please" and "thank you" for this to finally sink in.

The funny part of this courteous behavior is that it is most pronounced at night when he's tired.

He's so been sweet, uttering statements such as, "Dad-E, thank you for my room." "Mom-E, I love my toys."

Just this weekend, Gramm-E bought him a DVD. Without ever having seen it, he announced, "Dad-E, I love this movie. It's great."

The best part is that he's just thankful. He asks for nothing in return, no new toys, no extra tv or computer time, etc.

We also had a just plain fun weekend. We celebrated Little Cousin's baptism on Saturday. On Sunday, we went for a ride on a bike path, and Big Brother had SO much fun. He was so proud of (and tired from) his bike riding.

Then today, we got some good news about Little Brother. He was born with a congential kidney abnormality that we've just been "watching" over time. He had his 6-month follow-up visit today, and everything is still looks good. His next follow-up won't be for a year, and if everything still looks good at that time, the peds urologist will "release" Little Brother from his care.

Thank you, Big Brother, for reminding us to appreciate the little things. That's what it's all about. I'm truly thankful for both of you, boys. It was a great weekend, and Mom-E and I are very happy (and tired :)

Cheers,
Busy-Dad-E