How to Raise a Codger

If I were to just transcribe some of the conversations in this house without crediting the speaker, you might think I was living with an elderly relative.

I'm not.

I'm living with a Noah-who just happens to be eight-with the soul of an eighty-year-old man.

Unless you have experienced this, it is hard to understand. I have often heard people describe others as an "old soul". And I got it. But I didn't truly understand it until Noah was born. Even as a newborn infant, he was cranky. He cried most of the time. And when he wasn't crying, he was looking through me. THROUGH ME. It was unnerving- having a newborn stare right through me almost as if he was annoyed at my incompetence at keeping him happy. I almost got the impression he knew more than I did.

(He is four days old in this picture)

(here, he is not yet three, and yelling at me for taking his picture)

And now, today, he is a funny, funny little old man trapped in a child's body.

Yesterday, he scolded me when I woke him. He was tired and he told me I should not let him go to bed so late (his bedtime is 8- but it was 8:30 before he went to bed the night before). He informed me that he would be going to go to bed at 7 that night. HE MOVED HIS OWN BEDTIME!

We had a very unusual day here in New Jersey yesterday. It was sixty-five degrees! That is incredible for February. This time last year, we were buried in snow and I was cranky because I had to deal with it by myself since my husband was deployed all winter. Today was a day to be enjoyed. It was a day to be outdoors.

When Noah arrived on the bus yesterday afternoon, he lamented that he wished he could play outside, but he had a lot of homework. I told him to go play and enjoy the day and we would tackle his homework that evening. He worried about it for a few, finally ran off to jump on the trampoline and then fifteen minutes later, he decided he was going in to do his homework. His schoolwork, after all, was more important than playing. I reminded him that he is a kid and that ultimately he is supposed to PLAY. And that, yes, his school work is important and that we would get it done, but that there was no harm in taking advantage of this beautiful day, because it may not come again for several more months.

I had to force him to stay outside. Fast forward two hours and he was at the kitchen table working on his math when his father got home. He immediately tattled on me. He told his father how I told him that play was more important than school work and now he has to do all this homework and he just wished he had gotten it out of the way earlier. His dad backed up what I said and Noah sighed. Apparently he was not going to get any sympathy from his parents. Within the next few minutes, he was in tears- stressed because he was having trouble with his homework, sad that he hadn't finished, tired and still throwing the criticism my way as to my poor parenting skills.

Ultimately, he finished his homework within a half an hour, he ate his dinner, showered and put himself to bed at 7:30. (At least he didn't wake up at 4:30 this morning and ask for Grape Nuts)

I will let you know when he starts requesting we hit the early bird specials.

(Noah- this past December at his piano recital)

I am linking up with Jennifer's "Share Your Awesome" at Momma Made it Look Easy