I have a feeling there will be a lot of posts about Jack. There is something about naming a child Jack that gives them this certain energy. Jacks zest for life is unable to be quenched, and he is sometimes too smart for his own good. He can make me well up with tears out of pride or want to pull all of my hair out. He is the child that we had to double gate (one on top of the other) because he would wander through the house at crazy hours. We did this until we found him in the "big" room (as we call it), double gates intact. He had removed the vent cover from his wall and crawled through the wall into the bathroom where he pushed the other vent cover out. That is Jack.
The instance that happened that prompted this whole blogging attempt was last Friday evening. I had all three kids at the Childrens Museum, and we'd met up with a few other pals of mine with their kids. After a bite at McDonalds (thats right), we were all playing and enjoying our time. Jack was doing his own thing and after awhile I found him digging in a pit of small rubber pieces looking for dinosaur bones. Jack began tossing small pieces of rubber all over the place. I completed the 1-2-3 counting that we do (I'll post more on that one too), and no cooperation from him. Tired, for sure...but I needed to get him to stop. I'd been holding Noah in a carrier (nursing most of the time), chasing after Maddie and I was hot sweaty and ready to have a glass of wine. Jack has a way of knowing this....the throwing of the rubber pieces continued. Finally I was able to get him over to me. As I drew in a breath to yell at him something happened. This something has never happened with Jack before. This something took 4 years to happen. I paused.
In that pause I was able to silence the mommy-monologue that is continually running through my head. "I think you forgot to turn on your Listening Ears", he looked at me totally confused. I really had no idea where I was going with this one. "Hmmmmm. I see them. But I think the batteries are worn out", this got his attention and without missing a beat he reached into his pockets pulled out imaginary Listening Ear batteries, put them in his ears and turned them on. (Side note: they turn on exactly the same way that Scott the Imagination Mover turns on his Wobble Goggles, which Jack has a pair of as well...surely there will be posts about the Movers). All it took was a little reminder to do better listening and he was off playing nicely with the other kids for the rest of the evening. I did tell him on the way out to the mini-van that I was proud of him. "How come I get to me your mom", I asked him. He looked at me and said, "I choose you Mom", very matter of factly.
That pause. It is something I've worked on since Jack was born. It is something that I work on with all of my kids. What was it about that moment? In a chaotic, loud, bright place, at the end of a week and after a long day at home. Probably the most unlikely place for a nice parenting moment. But it happened, and now I've got a new tool. Listening Ears.
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