Parenting is hard

Have I said that before? In the past three months Mary has gotten 3 molars and two front teeth and she's had a large lump in her gums (signifying the imminent arrival of a fourth molar) for over a month now. This does not make for a happy baby. If you've met Mary you know how she is generally happy and easy to please...well not in the past three months.

Anyway, I'm re-reading The Baby Whisperer and I got to a part yesterday that I thought was really great and encouraging for our current situation. She says there is, "an inescapable law of parenting: nothing stays the same very long. After all, this is the only job on earth in which not only do the requirements keep changing, but so does the 'product'" Later she says, "problem solving means asking the right questions, so that you can figure out the source of a child's upset and the reasons for her new behavior, and then coming up with a plan for changing the situation - or learning how to live with the new circumstances." These two quotes really stuck out to me because the first one is so true, and the second is what we've been dealing with. We've had to come up with a plan to deal with whining and learn to live with our little girl being in a foul mood most of the time. I'm also hoping that this doesn't stay the same very long:)

Anyway, I'm glad I'm almost done with the book. It's GREAT for giving you ideas on how to do a lot of things with your infant/toddler. But at some point you just get tired of reading those things. I remember in the beginning getting so frustrated with books that were full of philosophy and didn't just tell me HOW to parent and what to do. But now I really appreciate those books and would like to start on another one!