One of the many things I’ve learned since I became a parent is that there are always going to be times where you become frustrated with, and even angry, at your child. Even the smallest of children can manage to quickly eliminate any patience you may have once had.
I had one of those times this past weekend.
We were in beautiful Lima, Ohio visiting my in-laws. For whatever reason, we don’t have a monitor there so we put our son’s pack-n-play in the same bedroom that we sleep in so we could hear him if he awakes.
Oh, and did I mention my obnoxious dog sleeps in the room with all of us as well?
Our dog felt the need to get up at 4 in the morning this last Friday and paw at our closed door. My wife let her out, but the commotion of it all woke up our son.
Foolishly, we thought that simply returning his pacifier to his mouth would resolve the situation.
No go.
So then we tried laying him in bed with us to see if he would fall asleep again.
Not happening.
He was officially awake and looking for something to do.
My wife and I were both tired as hell and very interested in completing our sleep. We played the game of trying to sleep and each keep one hand on him, but that lasted only a few minutes before he was exploring every inch of our bed. That’s when the frustration began to mount.
That’s also when my son began to mount me.
I was so annoyed.
He climbed up on my stomach and started jumping up and down, laughing the whole time. He was having a blast and I was pissed.
But then it happened.
He pulled his pacifier out of his mouth and clear as day said, “Hey Dad Dad” with a huge smile on his face.
My wife and I immediately burst into laughter, knowing full well that although he can’t talk, he somehow managed to say the perfect thing to dissipate any anger or frustration we had about his early morning antics.