Guess it's Payback...

Jake is precious - SO precious (as if you didn't know I already thought that).  However, I have now come across the HARDEST part of parenting to date...  I mean, really....the sleepless nights at the beginning - not that bad.  So you lose some sleep and you don't know your days from nights, BUT....your child can also pretty much do no wrong.  NOW, though....now is the stage of "pushing your buttons" and "pushing the limits."  That is Jake's stage now.  My laid back child has a LOT of me in him = strong-willed (yes, my parents have that evil smirky grin on their face right now)... :-)  Stong-willed is good.  It has worked for me, BUT it makes my job now as a parent very challenging (it was more fun when I was the one pushing the buttons of my parents)!! :-)  Back to the HARDEST part of parenting to date....that would be CONSISTENCY!!  Since I'm the main parent around Jake for 6-7 days of the week, being CONSISTENT is quite EXHAUSTING.  Sometimes I want to just let Jake do what he's not supposed to do, b/c I don't want to endure the tantrum - or quite frankly I'm just too "tired" to remove him from the situation, but how is that learning - if I tell him "no" one time and remove him and then let him do it the next time?!  SO, there you have it - the hardest and most exhausting part of parenting to date is being consistent (especially weeks like this when Chris isn't even home at night).  BUT - even though Jake's strong-willed nature makes me want to scream sometimes (yes, my parents are STILL smiling), I also understand he is discovering his independence - and I like that, too!  Plus, it makes me have an even greater amount of appreciation for my parents than I already did (and I appreciated them A LOT before now).  :-)  Guess they say what goes around....comes around.... (and yes, my parents still probably have that smirk on their face).