Parental Hubris

I am quickly realizing the dangers of parental smugness -- you know, the feeling that you have everything under control and this parenting thing is a piece of cake.

Exhibit A:  Last Thursday morning Miss Sophia spent the morning with Charlie and me because her daycare was closed for the holiday.   Not only was I able to keep up with two crawlers and two sets of diapers, but the kids got along great and actually played together (if you call Charlie stealing Sophia's bow and chewing on it and following her around the house "playing"). 

The arrogance set in when I was able to get both Charlie and Sophia down for naps, and Charlie napped for 2 1/2 hours -- allowing me to come downstairs and revel in my amazing parenting abilities. 

Flash forward to Friday through Sunday when my beloved napping expert refused to nap for more than 40 minutes at a stretch, then on to Monday and Tuesday when our happy little boy has actually been grumpy in the evenings!

Exhibit B: As I've mentioned before, mornings are my favorite part of the day.  Charlie and I get up, nurse, then come downstairs to play and eat breakfast until time to go to Donna's. 

Yesterday morning Charlie was playing with his new piano from his cousin Camden (a fabulous toy that I highly recommend) while I sat on the couch enjoying my cereal.  As I scarfed down my Fiber One and caught up on my GMA, I was thinking of how far we've come in the past 10 months -- how wonderful it is to sit and enjoy a few minutes of "me time" while my son innocently and contentedly plays at my feet...

Then I looked over to discover that Charlie apparently has go-go-gadget arms.  He was contentedly swinging my empty coffee cup while the last remnants spilled out onto the rug!  To add insult to injury, I hadn't even had a sip yet (luckily it had cooled off while I fed the dog, made Charlie's lunch and packed his bag for Donna's). 

The fun didn't stop there, though.  Charlie enjoyed the clean-up nearly as much as the destruction, unspooling the entire roll of paper towels while I tried to soak up 12 ounces of coffee from the rug.

I suppose I've learned three key lessons from my cockiness:
1 - Never feel like you have things under control -- God has a sense of humor
2 - Dark brown carpet is a blessing
3 - Even annoyances and accidents are fun with Charlie!

Mmmm...bow

Chasing Sophia

"Sharing"

My little Piano Man

Clean up time