At Home With Dot

Our youngest son rarely has two feet planted on the ground at the same time. His motion is usually a run, jump or skip. Asking him to walk is like asking me to stop eating chocolate. Slowing down is so very hard for him. Being active is simply part of his temperament. In my own simplified words, temperament consists of personal characteristics that you are born with. These characteristics can be molded in different ways depending on how you're raised and/or life circumstances. Our temperament determines how we will respond to experiences and events in our lives. One of our little guy's temperamental characteristics is being highly active and today his preschool teacher needed to talk with me about it. Our son is still learning how to appropriately express his excitement and energy level. Often times this excitement sends adrenaline through him and the result usually entails touching, hitting and pushing anything that moves. This type of behavior from a one year old may s...

I had just stepped away into my bedroom for a mommy break when I heard..."the babies are playing with sister's nail polish and have all the containers open." My eyes closed and I took a deep breath expecting to see polish spilled on the floor and all over their arms and legs. Luckily, I only found a few marks on my little girl's lips, the little guy's arms and my dinning room table. Even so, I was at the end of my patience and emotional control. I lost my temper and the mommy tears started to flow. Its a beautiful thing when a child develops both compassion and a sense of wonder! Right now my two youngest have wonder that far outweighs their compassion. This often means their curiosity compels them to explore in inappropriate ways. Just this week I've cleaned up a toddler toilet play pee mess, witnessed my child making a meal out of dog food, removed a meal of toothpaste from two pairs of busy hands, saw my 3 yr old climbing on top of the covered Jacuzz...