On Being Patient With the Process
Reminders
My son has turned 7 months old recently and with that he has also started to become more active.
Despite moving a lot and enjoying tummy time and his play mat, he will fuss whenever he is trying to move a certain way but can’t quite do it.
Sometimes he wants to roll over.
Sometimes he wants to turn.
Sometimes he wants to sit up.
And I got into the habit early on of just rolling him over or moving him to his liking so he would stop fussing and I could get back to eating or cleaning or whatever it is that I was doing.
But lately I’ve been trying to do things a bit differently.
The other day he started fussing during tummy time and I felt tempted to just roll him over since that’s what he appeared he wanted. But I stopped. Instead I paused and watched. I saw him lift his butt up in the air. Then I saw him do a plank. Then I saw him move his knee forward a bit as if trying to figure out how to crawl.
“Look at you!” I exclaimed, “You’re doing it!”
He looked at me and smiled. Then he just kept going. Trying whatever new move he felt he needed to do without the fuss.
It’s normal to get upset sometimes when life gets hard.
It’s normal to get frustrated when you can’t quite do something that you really want to do.
It’s normal to get upset when you’re putting in tons of effort but you just can’t quite get there.
But how often do we just not see just how close we are to doing where we want to do?
How often do we just not see just how close we are to being where we want to be?
How often do we just not see just how far we’ve come?
Maybe sometimes we just need to slow down and pause.
We might realize that we’re right on track… that we are right where we need to be…building those muscles the way we need to so we can start to crawl.
Things I found nourishing this week:
Baby snuggles (always)
Hot tea and a weighted blanket on a rainy day
Prince Harry’s brutally honest memoir.
The trees starting to bloom here in Northern California.
Spinach salads