We're moving into some unchartered territory with our little guy. As we get ever nearer to that famous 2 year old mark, Garrett is getting more and more independent. With it comes a lot of attitude and spunk. (Remember the red hair.) He is generally a happy and fun little guy, but has recently started whining, yelling "NO," and throwing a few fits. This is obviously frustrating for Greg and I as first-time parents. It's easy to wonder what we're doing wrong and think our kid wouldn't be acting like that if we were better parents. Do we need to be stricter, firmer, kinder, more loving and understanding? We're not sure. This parenting thing is tough sometimes.
Thankfully, we were blessed with a sweet reminder today of the goodness of our little guy's heart. There is a young man in our Church congregation with some sort of mental disability. It is my understanding he has autism, but I'm not sure. He generally sits apart from his family on a row by himself and doesn't seem to ever associate with anybody. I think most people are intimidated by him and just don't know how to respond to him, so they avoid him. (Myself included.)
This young man came in and sat behind us today. As soon as Garrett saw him, I could tell he was deeply concerned. He kept looking at the kid and then back at me with a very concerned look on his face. I tried smiling reassuringly at him and telling him it was okay, but he was very worried about this boy sitting behind us. He got off my lap and got some toys out of his bag. I thought he was just going to play with them, but before we could grab him, he was behind us and trying to share his toys with this young man. The poor kid didn't know quite what to do and reluctantly took the toy from Garrett. He handed the toy back to me and we tried to keep Garrett with us, but he was determined to share everything he had with this young man. I could tell it was making the kid uncomfortable and did my best to keep Garrett away from him, but Garrett didn't stop looking at him or worrying about him for the rest of the meeting.
As I watched Garrett looking at him and trying to make him smile, I was touched with the goodness of his little heart. Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated when he's whining or throwing a fit, but it was a sweet reminder of how pure he really is. Most people just ignore this young man at church, but Garrett noticed him and wanted him to be happy. It made me stop for a minute and realize what a blessing it is to have this sweet little spirit in our home and what a great responsibility we have to teach him to be kind and always keep his heart pure.
By the way, what good is a post without a picture? Here's my fellars after they got in from feeding the animals tonight.
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4 comments:
I really like this post! That is a sweet reminder. You're not alone in wondering if your sometimes tempermental child is your fault..I feel the same sometimes and end up just realizing he's a child, and that's how he's supposed to act while he's figuring it all out!
What a sweetie Garrett is. I know he will grow up to be kind and thoughtful. How could he not with such wonderful parents? :)
We were talking last night about how full of energy Garrett is. We wonder how you keep up with him in your current "condition". He's such a cute little stinker though so it makes it worth it.
Again, it was so fun running into you! (In all my "glory" too ;)
That is a really sweet post. Thank you for sharing. I'm always saying how I want to preserve Dax's sweetness as long as possible, because, yes, the two year old mark is quickly approaching.
Its hard at times keeping him out of trouble, but its so sweet to see Dax just smile at everyone and give hugs to us. Thank goodness they more than make up for their wildness with their sweetness ;)
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