From time to time, in this crazy life that I lead from one place to another, I manage to stop and look at the things that happen around me. Realize that my children are no longer babies, who now demand something different from me than a few months ago, that they are able to surprise me with a thousand ideas, gestures and phrases. In short, that they grow up and they are not going to wait for me, that it is I who must decide what is really important and what I should not miss from their life. And that is one of the most difficult things we face, seeing how they grow, the things they are capable of doing or saying.
It is just in those moments when I feel, I breathe and let his world invade me when I find myself surrounded by dragons, games, books, meaningless lyrics and a thousand different surprises every day. These are Some of the things that have surprised me most about my children.
The literal one:
Things are white or black, gray is another world and not a combination of the previous ones. So I could perfectly define any day in the life of my children. It's amazing how you realize that your life is full of exceptions. That that should be something timely, has really become common in our lives. It has been with them as I have realized how difficult it is for them to adapt to the daily life of an adult and how important it is to be understanding and assimilating that the world is full of contradictions. Very clear examples of this could be:
- If the apples are yellow, "this" is red, which you gave me when I asked for an apple is not an apple.
- No matter what you put on my plate, it looks the same as yours, it smells like yours and tastes like yours, if it doesn't come out of your plate we are not eating the same thing. How many discussions at the table it cost me until finally I decided to serve from a main course.
- Irregular verbs. How difficult now seems to have to learn all those ways that do not meet the standard?
Sleep
How many times have we gone to bed much later than we should because we are doing something entertaining, is there a program on TV that interests us or are we just comfortable chatting with our partner or with friends?
For a child, there comes a point where even the most sleepless of infants is overcome by sleep and that is when the time comes, when that limit point is reached, unique to each child and occasion, the interesting thing will happen Whatever you are seeing or doing, even the great expectations of these dates, Reyes and PapaNoel are no match for the fairies of dreams.
Now that they are growing, they are able to withstand the call of Morpheus a little more, but still it surprises you to see how sometimes they surrender to the evidence and sing that of the "bed way, it is the best way".
Where and how to sleep
It is one of the things I envy most of my children. Look that I am a person little given to complicate my life with sleep, basically what I need is something soft where to drop me, a pillow and little noise, nothing more. But they surprise me every day.
Have you noticed the places where your children have ever slept? I number those of my children: sitting at the table using the plate as a pillow), while playing (entering the room and find him sleeping on the floor and with the toys still in hand), on top of many different things that a fakir's bed would have nothing to envy.
I know that not all children are the same, but I find it funny to see a house full of adults behaving as if they were paving a museum so as not to make noise and that the child does not wake up, when, at least in some case I know we could leave the Roro on top of the speakers of a Heavy Metal concert. Although it is not bad to check from time to time how our own fine motor skills go.
The sincerity
Popular wisdom says it, children and drunks always tell the truth. And at least, children say it without the slightest cover and to our misfortune, at a much higher volume than desired.
"Look dad that man has no hair on his head like you" (Good thing, at least we are from the same team)
"I kissed the lady and you told me you were giving me a lollipop. I want my chuche!" A deal is a deal. (Next time we will have to add some clause)
Spend the afternoon preparing a dish that you think they will love and receive you with "that does not smell very good" (It is very hard the life of a child chef)
Surely you have your moments of earth swallow me your own.
The imagination
I could not miss this list. And although they are still very small and do not have the development they will reach with eight years or more for example, but still their explanations about the world around them are usually hilarious and not lacking in certain logic.
Little by little you see how it goes from "if I do not see it does not exist" to develop complex stories about the origin of pirates, volcanoes or Mickey Mouse and the funniest thing is that they are able to relate everything without disheveled.
And all this in just a couple of years. Amazing.
The importance of small things and details
I have to admit that I have never been one of those men who are always waiting for even the smallest detail, mine is or was, couple survival. But everything changed when my son arrived or rather, when that time came between two and three years in which we started with tantrums and inconsolable cries without coming to mind (or that seems to us always at the first moment). A cookie with a broken corner, a story in which you have skipped a sentence, change your way to go to school, all this was a reason to meet a disconsolate child looking at you as if you had done the greatest evil in the world. And it does not matter if you try to talk about exceptions, roads that lead to Rome or that a cookie is still a cookie, no matter how broken it is, you have not noticed those little details and we will have it.
