Parenthood: Week 431 - Determintation

Two mornings ago, Ethan, my 3-year-old woke up and refused to eat any breakfast. This was frustrating because I knew that he would not be in a great mood until he got some food in him. It was a control thing for Ethan, and because he doesn’t think ahead that far, and didn’t understand that he really should eat something even if he’s the only kind of hungry. So, I probably offered him food more times than I should have and got more frustrated than productive.

Then the following day, he woke me up early, demanding I make him breakfast.

This is the experience of having a toddler. I remember dealing with my older son’s toddler logic, and it is exhausting. However, it’s different with Ethan because I feel his personality is “complements” toddler-ism.  What's been nice is that we are starting to see his stubbornness turn into determination.

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan got really into stickers. He would take a page of stickers and arrange them on a piece of paper.  He spent almost an hour taking over one hundred circular stickers and arranging them on a piece of paper.  Ethan insisted on staying up late to finish this project.

I found some other sticker puzzle activity books. You are supposed to peel up a sticker place it on an outline of a puzzle piece with a coordinating letter or number. Ethan just did them based on shape, and he got through three of four of these books. Now the toddler-ism peaked out at times.  When he accidentally ripped a sticker, he would scream and refuse help. It was hard to get him to stop and he threw a tantrum when he wanted to do more, but we had to transition to something else.

Now Ethan is into coloring.

I got him these special pens sets that only work on pieces of special paper. It’s kind of like invisible ink with colors. He’s been on a mission to make the walls less “blah.” Ethan is working so hard. He gets into a zone and will sit there quietly, coloring for sometimes as long as forty-five minutes.

I’ve also seen this determination with bike riding. Ollie got a new bike, so I set Ethan up with Ollie’s old bike. I put on the training wheels and adjusted the seat down. This bike is too big for Ethan, but that hasn’t deterred him. The other day it was raining, and while it was warm enough to stay outside, it wasn’t pleasant. At a slow, methodical pace, Ethan was determined to make his way around our neighborhood on his bike. Sometimes I would give him a push but mostly did it himself. I would have given up due to the rain and the clear amount of effort it took for Ethan to move a bike that big, but he didn’t give up.

I got some things to learn from this little guy.