Late Night Ramble and life with little J

It's 11:04PM and who knows what will come out of this post, HA.  I am sitting on the sofa with a three year old little boy who seems nowhere close to sleep and despite our efforts to put him back into bed, he won't stay and keeps popping back out of the room.  So, in order to allow my husband to sleep for his day of work tomorrow, I am sitting up and hoping he will soon be ready for bed too. 

According to my dear MoG little J woke up from his nap sometime around 6PM, so it is really no wonder he is having a hard time finding his zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's because he took a 3+ hour nap today (totally not like him his naps usually last a little over and hour).  Of course it doesn't ever seem to matter how much sleep little man gets, he always seems to be filled with energy and independent focus that exlcudes all parental guidance ;-)  I think we are in for a very long 18 years with our little man.

Little J has a focus on enjoying life with NO FEAR on his terms.  The little man doesn't care where he lands, what he busts, OR how much we fuss, his total focus is on his personal pleasure.  I am trying to equip myself with God's word to get me through this horrible challenging time with J.  I will be honest sometimes it is hard to cling to the cross when dealing with our energy filled self focused little man, and more often then not I feel like I am face down at the FOOT of the cross and little J is standing on my head.  One of my dear readers recently commented on a post and called me a "Godly woman", I thank you for that description and pray I live up to it each day, but often I do not feel very "Godly" when overloaded from a day of full on battle with little J.  I want to be as raw and honest with you as I can, although I love my life with 3 little Miracles, our life is far from perfection but it is the wonderful life God is blessing us and guiding us through.

I honestly don't know who came up with the term "Terrible 2's", because we have been going through 2, 3, and now almost 4.  Seriously, when Dobson wrote his parenting books he apparently had never met little J or any kid like him, because I have yet to find a chapter that covers my strong willed boy, at least that is how it feels to me.  Now please, don't read between the lines here, I love my boy and wouldn't trade him for ANYTHING.  Little J is a sweet cuddle, loves books, loves to sing, dance, is highly creative in his playtime, is willing to try almost anything at least once, and is amazingly brave.  I just wish I could help him to control his anger better, but then again I have to own some of that, I need to model better anger management skills for him in order for him to learn how to control his.  One of my nightly prayers is that Jon and I will learn to use our words in our moments of frustration instead of yelling.

J is so focused on doing things HIS WAY that inspite of the fact that he knows how to use the pottey, he refuses to actually do so.  We have tried every method of potty training him and at 3 years 5 months he still does it ALL in his pullup.  I seriously think Rachel may end up potty trained before J every is.  The sad thing is, his stubborn mind set on potty training is going to begin to effect his schooling, because they will not graduate him to the 4 year old class this coming fall if he isn't potty trained.  The preschool actually has a policy that he is supposed to be potty trained now in the 3 year old class, but because we have been a preschool family for 3 years now with D and J, they were willing to work with us this year.

I know we will survive this time in J's life and one day we will look back on all the things we went through in guiding him to the young man God would have him to be and we will smile and probably even laugh.  It is by God's grace and mercy that we hope to make it through each day and look foward to the clean slate we have on the next after a day chalk full of mayhem.

Little J you have no fear

You jump, you play, you give a cheer

You climb, you crawl, and fly things high

And you never seem to hear mom sigh

I pray for you my little boy

That you'll be filled with God's joy

With His purpose and His plan

And for Him in life you will stand

Hear my prayers God give them voice

Help my words to guide his choice

Guide me through the years ahead

and this night to go to bed ;-)

-Laura Ann