Parental Conflict

It's commonly proclaimed that parenting is an ongoing conflict of wills -- but I never realized that I would be on both sides of the same argument!  I constantly finding myself wishing Charlie would learn or do one thing and then wanting to take it back as soon as he does.  Either I'm completely nuts, or being a mom is...

Some obvious examples are the big milestones: rolling, sitting, crawling, walking, talking, weaning, etc.  I looked forward to each of them, was proud for about 30 seconds and then missed my baby. 

But there are many much more subtle (and perhaps crazier) such moments every day.  Last night, for example, Charlie was obviously sleepy, so I was rushing to get him through dinner, nap, stories and prayers, so he could go to sleep.  Then I came downstairs, curled up on the couch to do my crossword puzzle and missed him.  I wanted him awake to play with me.

An even more ridiculous situation occurs regularly in the mornings.  Like any mom, I am thrilled when my baby sleeps through the night and overjoyed if he makes it past 6:30, but if 6:45 rolls around and I haven't heard a peep, I have an uncontrollable urge to sneak into his room and see if he's breathing.  And due to my 32 year old knees that snap, crackle and pop, I sometimes wake him from a peaceful sleep (like this morning!).  Seriously, who is crazy enough to wake a sleeping baby before 7:00 in the morning!?

We actually experienced a brand new conundrum last night at dinner.  As Charlie is quickly closing in on 13 months, it's probably time that he starts learning to feed himself.  I've been cutting him loose with "tidy" finger food for months, but to be honest, I'm just too lazy to let him feed himself the messy stuff -- I don't want to clean it off the walls, floors, dog, etc.  Therefore, Jason and/or I take the lead with anything that requires utensils. 

Based on this practice, one would imagine that the first time we did let Charlie try to feed himself it would probably be something not too sticky and not too brightly colored, right?  No, OCD mom here decided that the perfect food for Charlie's first foray into utensils would be left over pink fluffy stuff.  For anyone who has never attended one of Jason's family's holiday, this is a glorious concoction of strawberry jell-o, strawberries, cool whip and angel food cake...mmmm....  Fabulous food, but completely contrary to my attempts to keep my kitchen free of pink flecks and Otis from succumbing to a sugar-high.  Oh well -- it sure was fun!

He scoops...

He scores...

He chews...

He wants more!