The thing I hate most

I was reminded this week of the thing I hate most about being a parent. The worst thing is coughing in the night. A child coughing through the night is stressful, because neither of you is sleeping, although you both are trying very hard. You lie in bed, sleepy but stressed, picturing your child in the other room settling in, eyes closed, sleep setting in...and then a series of shaking coughs. Repeat. Repeat. At some point the coughs start to space out a bit more and you start to fall asleep only to be awakened each time. Eventually you get a little sleep. Even if you can put your head under your pillow, you know that your child is still coughing and miserable and it keeps you from relaxing.

The thing I like best is the little catchphrases your kids come up with. For awhile, Leo started almost all of his sentences with the word "actually." 

"Actually, I wanted some milk."

"Actually, it's not my bed time."

His other catchphrase is "I told you." He pulls this out almost as often. It usually precedes a long explanation of something:

"I told you....." [heavy emphasis on the "told"]

I had to fill out a form marking Leo's developmental progress last night and one of the questions asked if he could put together two or more sentences. We just had to laugh, because Leo typically puts together somewhere around twenty sentences when he speaks. He goes non-stop. In the car or at home he will speak at length on anything without pause. It's like a constant Bill Clinton speech. Even though it sounds mean, often we will have to say "Leo, you need to stop talking for a bit" just to get a little silence.

Emily was much more reserved in her speaking. She would toss off these little gems every so often though. One morning when she was three she came into my room and was saying something to me and I sat up to reply. She looked up at me and exclaimed "Hey...you have crazy hair!" It immediately became one of our catchphrases at home.