I will share. And pacifiers.

Monday's lesson for Family Night was on sharing. Carson, our lover of anything he can memorize (have you heard him sing the 50 states song??) , of course wanted to repeat what the lesson was about and practice sharing like the lesson encouraged him to do. I asked him if he would share his pacifier with me, and he agreed. I clipped it to my shirt just like he clips it on for bed. As the lesson continued, he sneakily slipped the pacifier into his mouth. He reminded us that he was still sharing because it was clipped to mom.

Sometimes I think it's time to get rid of that pacifier (only used for bedtime), but then I remind myself how hard life must be at times for a 2-year-old: testing limits, learning to control so many strong emotions, feeling determined to do some things that you just physically aren't able to do and getting so frustrated that you're not there yet, dealing with fears, having a little brother who inhibits mom from reading you books for 8 hours a day like you would prefer, etc. etc. etc. And when I think about how fast he's growing and learning and changing, I have some sympathy. If sucking on a little rubber thing is what comforts him during one of the most dramatically changing times of his life, I'll keep clipping that thing to his shirt every night. :)

Speaking of sharing, I do not like sharing my husband with the hospital at 6 a.m. every day, and sometimes until 10:30 at night. The first two years of med school were really not stressful on our family, except during board study. I have a sad feeling that third year will not be so easy!