It goes without saying that when
you become a parent, you are immensely proud of your child. Their first smile brings with it the most
amazing feeling of joy and these moments make you realise how happy you are and
how precious a gift having children is.
I know all too well that my boys are a gift; the one thing I have always
wanted. Even from being a little girl, I
knew the one thing I definitely wanted to be was a mother and today, I pinch
myself to make sure that it isn’t a dream. That these perfect little boys are mine for
keeps!
Every day, I wonder though, are
we doing a good job at raising them? I
think we are. Ian and I both have our
strengths and we don’t seem to be too far off in how we feel about raising the
boys. As long as we are doing the best
we can and are making decisions with the boys’ welfare at the core, then I
think we are doing a good job.
Of course, we both have our
weaknesses too. I know I can be firm
when I need to be but I am the softer of the two. I let things go much easier than Ian and I
tend to give in much easily. If Jacob
gets out of bed, I tend to hold on to him for cuddles rather than take him
straight back to bed, whereas Ian will toddle him back to bed and tuck him
in. With Seth, if he makes one little
sound, I am there, either stroking his little head or picking him up for those
heartwarming cuddles rather than leaving him to settle himself.
I think too that as a parent, we
have a responsibility for teaching our children early on, not just about
numbers and the alphabet, but manners and behaviour. Jacob has some epic tantrums when he wants
to; he is quite stubborn and it isn’t that he is naughty, but if he is tired or
hungry, he is so grumpy – a typical male I think! But tantrums aside, he is a pleasant and
polite little boy – he knows he needs to say please and thank you for anything
he asks for or receives. He knows ‘sorry’
when he has been mischievous or naughty and what is the loveliest of all is,
without prompt, he will say “I love you Mammy/Daddy/Seth”.
He is so loving towards Seth and
it is a wonderful thing to watch him walk up to the Moses Basket and stroke
Seth’s head whilst saying “cute” or “beautiful”. Seth loves to hear Jacob’s voice too – he
smiles when he is near him and when he comes back from nursery, Seth settles
down and becomes really content around Jacob.
Two peas in a pod!
I do worry about his speech
because he was quiet for what seemed like a long time – he spoke words and he
understands everything you say to him, but he does still babble a lot when he
is playing or when he wants to tell you something quickly – our health visitor
seemed pretty pleased with his progress at the last visit though and she
reassured me that babbling is still fine at his age – because he is playing and
using his imagination. He is talking a
lot more at nursery too which is a relief – it seemed that when I went to
nursery before, they always seemed to be really negative when they told me he
was quiet. Little did they tell me that
he could sit and do jigsaws by himself, he can count to 30, do the alphabet and
even recognises his own name when it is written down. A few weeks ago, one of the carers I spoke to
said “He is quiet. Quiet but very clever.” I smiled all the way home. For once, it wasn’t about what he wasn’t
doing, but what he was doing and how well he was doing it.
Recently, Jacob started football
‘academy’ at nursery. After three weeks,
the coach asked for the carers to pass the message onto Ian and I that Jacob is
so well behaved, he listens to instructions and does what he is asked to do
without any fuss. Yesterday, he came
home with blue stamps all up his arm – they get stamps for every good thing
they do during football. I think you
always want your child to behave and we were slightly concerned he might not
listen to do what he is told during his football, but to hear that he is and he
loves it so much makes us ridiculously proud.
Ian has both Jacob and Seth down to play for Hartlepool already! I am aiming higher than Hartlepool! Mind you, I have them both as surgeons or
lawyers or something.
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