Growing Pains

I guess you could say we all have growing pains; and in all sorts of ways. We have growing pains when your church or community gets too big and has to be split up or down sized. We have spiritual growing pains when we seem to be doing all that is right and feeling really good when the bad comes along. And sometimes we have physical growing pains... when we eat too much bad food and our bodies start to feel icky, I remember the growing pains of pregnancy, and then there's the growing pains of children when they are growing faster than their little bodies can stand.

Chris' mom last week mentioned that Chris used to have awful growing pains when he was a kid! So I read up on the subject and learned a few things. First off, growing pains can be hereditary. If one of the parents had them, a child is likely to have them. (Sorry about that Marlie) Growing pains can wake children up in the middle of the night with pain. They are more common after an especially active day. And although they most commonly occur in older children, 7-8 age range, they can haunt young children too. I think it's safe to say that this could be the cause of Marlie's being up all night several nights last week! So I started rubbing her legs when she woke up and gave her some Tylenol and it worked like a charm! YEAH!

In my sweet little girl's defense, she is not a terror everyday. Yes, she definitely has her spurts, and my last post about my little Marlie Monster was probably out of frustration. But I think I can take that in strides if I see more of the girl I saw today. Monday's are playgroup day at the elementary school here. It's for kids up to age 5 (pre school age). Marlie loves playgroup day and gets so excited to go to the school (in part because they have "tiny toilets" that are just the right size for Marlie). But over the past year that we've been going to playgroup, Marlie has been quite a bully! She will take whatever she wants and whatever she previously played with is 'hers'. There have been several days when we've left early because she just looses it! But today, we had a little pep talk in the car on our way to the school. We talked about how nice it is to share and take turns. How we say "Thank you" if someone shares their toys with us and "Please" if you want a turn with something. She went in there with a positive attitude and was actually nice to everyone! I was shocked! She took turns and if another child threw a fit and didn't want to share, she just walked away! I told her over and over how happy I was and rewarded her with a cookie when we got home! I'd take a day like that any day!

I guess this is one of the built in "toddler survival mechanisms" that children are born with. God knew when he was creating man kind that the learning, and ever independent toddler would push the patients of their parents. So He made them cute. And He made them say funny things. And he threw in a dash of sweet and kind with a bit of warm and cuddly to finish them off. He knew what He was doing!

So here's to Mommy Growing Pains. We have good days and we have bad days. It's all good. And I'd do it all over again!