Journey of my child rearing thus far

Babies come into the world with crying being their only communication.  At this time it seems that our mother radars begin to work.  When the baby cries it lets us know whether the baby is hungry, dirty, tired, or just wants held.  Then again there are times the radars get confused and we have to call in the reinforcements to figure out what could be wrong with our little darlings.  The reinforcements being our own mothers.

By 4 months or so their first word comes out of those tiny mouths.  All three of mine said "da da". Brian just loved it!  About a month or so later "mum mum" was spoke and has been spoken ever since. Of course now it is mommy.  They scream "Mom or Mommy" whenever they need something.  At times I ignore the word Mom and pretend I am another woman with no children.  That lasts for a split second and my brain comes back to reality and I scream back "Your mommy has changed her name"!  Funny how I was so thrilled to hear the first "mum mum".

Around 8 months they begin to babble up a storm... the babbling is only the beginning of worse things to come!  Sometimes you might hear an actual word or two, but for the most it is just jibberish or baby tongue.  I have witnessed mine carry on a conversation with another baby and they would giggle like they knew what was going on.  All the while I am wishing I knew what they were saying, then again maybe not.

By the time they reach a year old they can speak more words , but not in complete sentences.  This is a good thing!  Beware the walking can begin and some can be walking terrorists!  Zack started walking at 10 months, Logan at 13 months, and Isaiah at 14 months.  Zack was my walking terrorist!  If anything opened he was in it.  I had locks on everything including the fridge.  I even had to put a gate up in the hallway to keep the terrorist in one room.  A play pen was a joke for him.  He could leap a play pen with a single bound!

Then comes the terrible two's and three's.  Again Zack made it more terrible than most.  And they wonder why I have gray hair?  The child was so busy.  I had to keep him occupied or look out.  He figured out how to unlock doors and take off to his grandmothers.  We had to buy locks for the top of each door that Houdini himself could not open.  Well  this kept him from getting out, but it was also hard for us to get out!  Logan and Isaiah were both a breeze, thank the Lord!  If they had not been I would have probably ended up in the looney bin!  Some say after the two's the three's are a breeze.  Yea right is all I have to say!  Yes Zack once again, I know poor kid.  I was at my wits end with him and had him tested for ADD.  What the test showed was that he was borderline genius and the doctor said, "Mrs. Haber your son is just bored."  --rolling eyes--  I started giving him more computer games to play, puzzles to work, and I even got workbooks for him.  I got him a WV puzzle to work with small pieces of each county to put in the right place.  He had it worked in 10 minutes the first time and less time there after.  Zack had a great imagination.  One time, Brian's uncle came  up visit.  Zack called Ricky, Pee Paw.  So Pee Paw and Zack were on the porch and Zack told him to look up in the sky.  "See the moon, Pee Paw?  Ricky said yes.  "My daddy took a chainsaw to it."  The moon was a half moon that night.  Logan was and is a follower.  Whatever Zack and daddy are doing he wants to do it too.  He gets frustrated when you tell him you are not old enough.  He thinks since he is 2 years younger than Zack he can do it too.  Logan is my fly by the seat of your pants kind of kid.  He does not care what anyone thinks, he just does what he wants.  This is good, but can be bad.  He is a little on the dramatic side too.  I call him my "drama king".  If he were a girl he would make one good diva!  Isaiah will be 3 in a few weeks.  He is a cross between both boys' attitudes.  He is quite smart.  He loads up the computer by himself and chooses what games he wants to play.  He mimics everyone!  Somethings he does is just pure Isaiah.  I was reading one of my emails one day and he said "mommy"  I ignored him.  He again said, "mommy".  I again ignored him.  He then screamed "mommy"!  So I looked at him to see his naked butt and him shaking it saying "shake your booty"!!  I about rolled!  I had been mooned by my 2 yr old!!  Believe me when I say I do not run around in the buff, shaking my fat fanny!  I do dance around with my clothes on saying shake your booty Isaiah.  Just having fun.  I pray he never decides to run down the isle at church shaking his booty to the beat of his little band.  I think I would slowly sink down in my seat, pretending I was not there.  Of course he would probably yell "mommy I shake my booty, like you"!  I would then sink to the floor and start crawling out!

Through the years of child rearing, I have experienced different steps in seeing my boys growing up.  Some of the steps have broke my heart, while others I have treasured dearly.  I am so thankful the Lord blessed me with my children.  The same children that doctors did not think I could have.  I still have many more years left at rearing these boys, but with every step of my journey I am sure there will be calls to my reinforcement (my  mom) for advice.  Not to mention prayers to keep me sane (forget the gray hairs)!  I just want to keep my hair without pulling it all out!