Joseph's Big Week

In the week after Joseph turned one, he decided to 'turn things up a notch'!

He cut his seventh tooth.

At Mass when he wasn't throwing a tantrum

He took his first steps, taking a single step about a half dozen times so far.

He began speaking his first word: "down"! He takes a toy, throws it to the ground, exclaims, "down!" and cackles delightedly. The joke never gets old for him!

Wearing his new "teacher's assistant" tee-shirt: thanks T&M!

And he threw his first toddler-style tantrums. I've seen glimpses of these tantrums beginning when I pull him off the stairs and he arches his back and screams. But yesterday at Mass, it was unmistakable. He had found one of the parish's expensive missals which I can't let him play with, so I took the hardcover book away: Joseph flung himself to the ground, began logging rolling around, arching his back, screaming in anger, and would not let me pick him up. He just screamed and screamed at me. I tried to put him in my sling and I felt I was hardly strong enough, he was fighting me so hard. I finally got him calmed down by taking him outside into the sunshine (amazing what open sky does to instantly calm babies), but when later we were back in the cry room and again I had to take away a missal from him, he repeated the whole routine. Honestly, seeing this milestone developing for the fourth child in a row, I saw it as an exciting brain development and fell into fits of laughter in the middle of Mass over the whole thing. Too bad I know I won't keep my good humor as toddler tantrums ensue over the next year or two!

Bonus Reading: I was so touched and convicted this week by reading "Idols of a Mom's Heart" by  Ruth Simon.  As Simcha Fisher (I believe) once blogged about, we are to be Christ for our children, to present the Gospel to them in the way we as parents live. If we can't turn the other cheek, if we can't remain calm through our parenting (including teaching and discipline), if we resort to out-of-control anger and screaming, we are not evangelizing our nearest neighbors. We're teaching them something alright, but it isn't Christ. (Please note that I say this not from my high horse, but from my place as a fallen, very humbled mother.)

Simons writes about our many idols:

My daily life as a mom is replete with examples of how I often turn training into expectations, expectations into idols:

"The desire to wake up to a quiet house is reasonable, but has it squelched my ability to respond to my children’s (sometimes foolish) needs with patience?

"Is my need for peace and quiet so strong I’m willing to be unkind in the pursuing of it?

"Does my children’s whining annoy and inconvenience me more than it drives me to pray and train?

"Am I so prideful in the way I perceive my diligence that I am blind to teachable moments?

"One of my favorite authors, Elyse Fitzpatrick, says this from her book, “Idols Of The Heart”:

“If you’re willing to sin to obtain your goal or if you sin when you don’t get what you want, then your desire has taken God’s place and you’re functioning as an idolater.”"