Associations

NOTE: The following was written about a month ago, so set your clocks back and it'll be accurate timing wise.

Max has been picking up a number of associations lately which impresses the hell out of me. I don’t recall what age my parents said I spoke this clearly, but I’m certain that he’s more adept at it than I was. As we left the other morning for my parents’ house, he watched me lock the front door and said, “Keys… lock.” We walked out to the car and heard an airplane flying over. He looked up and said, “plane… look.” He also pointed to the street and said, “Mommy… work.”

Most of his friends aren’t this advanced, and I’m certain it’s because we don’t raise him via television. We play with him, we talk to him, compliment him when he gets things correct, and continuously interact with him. I’m not saying the other parents don’t do the same, but my observations lead me to believe that we do it more than they do.

In short, he’s a gem but we worked hard to mold him into one. Let it never be said that parenting was easy because it most certainly is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

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We’re gearing up this weekend to put a play structure together for Max. The story on how this goes will constitute its own post as some point in the near future depending on how successful we are. Thus far, we received it two weeks ago, it’s been sitting on a palette in our garage since then, and we haven’t had time for one reason or another to get to it until now. Add to that our actions this past weekend to shrink our fire pit and this could prove interesting.

As our budget is severely constrained at the moment, this will be the last large scale project for 2010. That’s not to say there won’t be more starting next year, but once this is completed we’re out for the remainder. Outside of the normal holidays, the next big event is Diva’s wedding in December. Following that is staying here for Christmas this year—something we’re immensely looking forward to. After the nightmare that was Christmas 2009, anything would be an improvement.

But the thought of waking up in our own house on Christmas morning and watching Max open his presents makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. I’m going to hold onto that feeling this weekend as I’m hammering and nailing the crap out of his play structure, and continue to tell myself that it’s all part of being a parent.