Sinner, Saved by Grace

We all have bad days. Who doesn't?

As a 2 1/2 year old there are multiple times in a day that Zach might get in trouble. He's still young. He's still learning. He reacts differently to each situation. Sometimes he might cry. Sometimes he might do nothing. Sometimes he might throw a fit.

Even as a 26 year old I want to cry (or throw a fit) when I have a bad day. :)

Where am I going with this?

On Sunday Zach was just not winning. He'd had a fun sleepover at Nana and Papa's on Saturday night and we saw him the next day at church. He was happy and full of energy.

After church it seemed to go downhill. Sure, he was tired because of interrupted sleep because of Papa's snoring. :) But even after his nap he still was very emotional.

We came home that night and he'd had enough. I sat down to do a puzzle with him and he kept ruining it so I told him that I wasn't going to keep putting it back together if he wasn't going to help.

Bring on the tears. More like a torrential storm of waterworks. The poor boy. You'd think his whole world was being torn apart.

I tried to change the subject and move on to dinner. That's a whole different post in itself, but needless to say, he wasn't having it either.

Finally at 6:15 I took him into his room and rocked. As his mom I knew he needed sleep and was just overtired. Lucky him he got his needed 12 hours of sleep.

Recently I was told that I would be moving classrooms so instead of teaching pre-k I now teach preschool 3 - 3 and 4 year olds. I'm not thrilled. I love my pre-ks! (See, this change could make me cry.) :)

Anyway, that one good thing about being in this new classroom is that Zach's room is right over the cubbies so I can hear everything that goes on. This is a good and bad thing. Good because I get to see him multiple times during the day. Bad because I hear when he is doing something he shouldn't or isn't listening.

For example, Zach almost bit one of his classmates today. This has never happened before and when his teacher told me I was surprised but knew it might happen sometime. She told me so I could talk with him, which I have now several times, and then reminded me that it's going to be tough. Tough because, like I said, I will hear her correcting him and I told her to go ahead since she is his teacher and he's there to learn. I know he's getting his molars, but that's also not an excuse for trying to bite another person. After tonight I hope I've drilled "No biting" into his brain. :)

So all this to say, he's a little sinner. :) But we all are. And we continue to be. The difference between me and him at this point in time is that I understand being saved by grace and asking for forgiveness. Until he's old enough to grasp that, he'll continue to sin and learn the consequences, but my job as his parent is to make sure he understands why he can't do whatever it is that he did wrong and tell him Jesus doesn't like it. Then when he gets older I'll be able to go into more detail.

I don't want this post to be all about what Zachary does wrong, because of course he's going to, he's still learning and he's a little boy. He does a lot right too. I don't want it to seem like I'm constantly reprimanding him. I don't. I let him be a child and enjoy his childhood. Zach's a very independent little boy. Who isn't at his age? He wants to do everything by himself, no help. Lately he'll say "Me. Me. Me." Meaning, I want to do it, you back off. And if we want to keep the peace we'll let him do it because he has to learn and that's fine. Those bad days just peek their head in sometimes.

So here's a positive note to end on - ever since last Wednesday, Zach has gone potty on the toilet multiple times! Whenever we're home and I change his diaper he says "Gotta go on the potty!" And he has success! (that's what they call it at school) I'm so proud of him. He'll still have wet diapers but still goes on the potty. It's a big step in the right direction and we celebrate every time! :)