Mirror that my son was practicing in

One day, when he was one, I put him down for a nap.  An hour later, I went to check up on him and guess what he was doing?  He had stood up in his crib to look in the mirror and he was making crying faces in the mirror!  He would scrunch up his face and then make it look like he was about to cry.  I couldn’t believe it!  He was practicing how to fake his crying so that he could get what he wanted.  He couldn’t even talk yet and he knew how to practice!

From that point on, my husband and I have always been keenly aware of what he’s been trying to do.  If he looks like he’s going to start crying, we wait to see if real tears flow down his face or if he just stops and nothing else happens.  About half the time, he completely stops after we ignore him, while the other half of the time, real tears flow down his face in waves.
With his grandparents, I’ve tried to tell them that he might be faking it, but they just won’t listen and I think he knows that they will give him whatever he wants.  So, I just let them be since I can’t really fight it.  I try to remind them, but they are so sad when they have to deny him anything – a toy, some more food, another game.  At 2 years old, my son already has his grandparents wrapped around his fingers.

I don’t forsee this changing anytime soon, but I know that I won’t be letting him get away with everything at home.  At home, there will be rules that he has to follow and things he has to learn.  I’ll teach him what he can and can’t do and show him that he can’t try to manipulate his dad and I or he will be in trouble.  But, wow, this is all new to me!  Now that he’s getting older, I have some things to learn too.

My son in his cousin's toddler bed

My son is turning 2 today and I am so sad. It marks another year older in his life. I loved watching him as a baby. I loved holding him in my arms. But, every week, he’s gotten a little bit bigger. Every week, I put him in his crib and I see how much longer he’s gotten. I knew I would have to move him out of the crib, but somehow, I wanted to keep him in the crib for as long as possible. I think I thought that having him in his crib would keep him as the cute little baby that I loved. Not that I don’t love how he’s growing, it just makes me sad. As a baby, he and I had so many special times. I would talk to him and sing to him and teach him new things. I know as he gets older, there are so many more new things to show him. It’s just hard as a mother to watch my son grow older since I know that this means he gets closer to becoming much older. He gets closer to going to school and having friends and then going to high school and becoming independent from me.

I think the first realization that I had that he was getting much bigger was when I put him in his crib and realized that I would need to buy him a new bed. He was just too big for his crib. It was time to buy him a junior bed and transition him to sleeping in a more adult bed. I told him that today and he was so excited. He’s been envious of his older cousin’s bed for a long time and loves to lie in it when we visit, pretending that it’s his own. So, this weekend, we are going to go look for a new toddler bed for him. I may cave in and buy him one of those fun car beds that he’s seen at his friend Tommy’s house, but we’ll see.

I just can’t believe that he is getting so much older and will soon have a new junior bed. Seeing that in his room will be the first thing that shows me how much bigger he’s gotten. Donating the crib will really show me how he is no longer the little baby that I held in my arms for so long. I know he’s only turning 2, but I never thought about him turning 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 or 17, so this is really hard for me.