A Hard Lesson "To-e" Learn!

When I was pregnant with my second child, I cannot tell you how many times friends and family told me, "Be prepared Tracey, no two children are ever alike."


And every time I heard that I thought, "Eh, how different can two kids (same sex siblings for that matter) really be?"


Well, let me tellya' folks...my two boys are as DIFF-er-ENT as different can be!!!!


With R.J. (my oldest) I could tell him "No" and he would accept it and move along.


Seriously, no questions asked.


No whining.


No crying.


No little hissy fit.


At his youngest of age he totally understood the sternness in my voice and figured out early on that when mommy said, "No", she meant it.


Till this day he is pretty much the same way.


Don’t get me wrong, he may try to barter his way out of a "No" sometimes, but for the most part he knows I'm serious when I say it.


Enter child number two...my youngest...my baby...my 17-month old toddler...C-O-L-T-O-N.


Oh, dear Lord, were my friends and family ever right!


I guess you could say that from the beginning Colton was different.


R.J. was a very colicky baby and Colton was as laid back as the day is long.


Good indicator of a laid back personality, right?


WRONG-O!


This sweet, smiley, blue-eyed child is wide open!


And now that he has found his "walking" running feet - - look out world!


Compound his uber energy with the fact that not only does he not like to hear the word, "No", when he does hear it, he either:


A. Continues to do what he's doing (ignoring the fact you ever said it);

B. Breaks out into a tears running down his face, can't catch his breath, ear piercing cry (as if you'd burned him with an iron);

C. Throws himself into a belly flop on the floor writhing and kicking like he's a fish that's been thrown onto the waterless surface of a boat, or

D. Temporarily stops what he's doing only to look at you with a sly little grin on his face and in less than a nano-second goes right back to doing whatever it is he's not supposed to be doing, touching, pulling at, destroying, playing with, sticking in his mouth, running away with, etc.


Honestly folks, this is going to be my child who when I tell him the sky is blue, he's going to INSIST that it's purple.


After all, he knows it's purple.


And you cannot tell him it's NOT purple!


He is stubborn with a capital "S" - - must take after his er, um, daddy…LOL!


You get the picture, right?!!!


Well, the other night there I was in our kitchen headed to the pantry to put a box of cereal away.


You know, just your average, run-of-the-mill, tidying up the kitchen activity.


EXCEPT, I forgot to tell you one other thing about Colton...


He is attached to me like a flea on a dog's back.


Everywhere I go (especially when I’m inside the house) he is either following me, hanging onto my pants legs while I am walking around, climbing on top of me if I am sitting or laying down, or raising his arms up to be carried if he's too tired of being my shadow.


Soooo, you can just forget about him staying in another room with his daddy and big brother if mommy is up and milling around in the kitchen.


Anyway, when I opened up the pantry door, as is typical, Colton is right behind me.


That is, until he stepped aside and spotted all of the colorful cans on the bottom shelf of the pantry that were also within arm's reach of his little toddler hands.


As he stretched out his arms to reach for one of the cans, in my identical Michelle Duggar-ish calm and gentle voice immediately I said screamed out like a mad Italian woman "NO, Colton!"


To which I was met with his quick glance of defiance just moments before he grabbed the family size can of Beef-a-roni (Sssh, don't tell my mom, but the kids like it) that promptly fell smack dab on his pajama legged, barefooted, big toe.


Within a mini-flash, he let out the most blood curdling crying scream.

And, when I looked down this is what I saw...

OUCH!

I felt so bad for him.


I mean after all, no mommy wants their child to be hurt and you gotta' know that this definitely hurt...BIG TIME!


When I finally got him to calm down, I gave him some Motrin for the pain and cradled him to sleep in my arms, all the while covering him with kisses.


While I was looking at him peacefully asleep, glad that he was going to be okay (albeit he may lose that toenail), I realized that this was a very hard lesson for him to learn.

But, moreover, I hope he realized that when mommy says, "No"...

She.

Means.

NO.