Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A Lost Balloon

I have found that good days often follow bad days. Yesterday was a tough day. It had me Googleing search terms such as "2.5 year old doesn't listen" while Chris put Milo to bed. My searches suggested this is a totally normal phase and setting clear boundaries should help. I went to bed after reading that.

The extra sleep must have helped because today was much better. We visited a new park, had lunch out and Milo even did great getting a haircut. Then on the way out of the car to go in the house, Milo let of the string to the balloon he got at the haircut place. We watched it float away into the sky and then the tears started. Real, wet, large tears streaming down his face. Accompanied by screaming that he needed his haircut balloon back. We held hands as we set off down the street to look for the balloon. I, of course, knew it was gone, but Milo held onto hope that we would find it. At that moment, I would have given him 100 white balloons with blue ribbons, but he only wanted his one and it was gone.

I'm sure there are all types of metaphors I can draw on for the lost balloon: freedom, innocence, childhood itself. But sometimes a lost balloon is just a lost balloon. And sometimes it reminds you that good and bad days happen, but ultimately everything just floats away.

1 comment:

Kristen said...

Funny, we just googled "best way to discipline a 2 year old" on Thursday - ha! This is such a weird stage b/c they really can be so incredible and fun and wonderful, and then turn around and become little monsters. And I'm so aware that her little brain just can't grasp some of what's going on, but yikes. Hopefully we can enjoy the good days!