Balancing Acts

Drew has been practicing balancing lately. Not himself standing up (although he has done it a couple times) but with his toys and balls. He is so proud of himself when he lets go of something and it stays in that position. This is now his new challenge to find the hardest thing to master balancing stuff on. He gets VERY frustrated when he does it the first time and cannot continue to do it every time he tries. Sometimes Logan and I think, "Why is he trying to balance the ball on the that thing? That's too hard." and then he does it! He claps his hands when he does it too, cause he knows he is a smart engineer! I try to help him with his frustration because he tends to just throw everything far away and give up. I don't want him to be a quitter and so I try to help him with his crazy balancing acts. At the same time I don't want him to think he HAS to do it every time, but I also don't want him to give up on his dreams. It can be confusing for me.

I'm also afraid Drew might have inherited this crazy balancing gene, here are a few examples:

Example One: My dad balancing himself on a ladder on black ice to remove the last frozen leaves from the gutter. End Result: broken bones and a mad wife (I did love having my dad home though and we got a new puppy!)

Example Two: My grandpa balancing on the top of a telephone pole to capture an amazing shot of a train. End Result: became famous among his pals (terrifying to think of right!?)

Example Three: Logan's Papaw balancing an upright piano in the back of a pick up truck with only a young Logan's dad to hold it. End Result: broken piano and a great story to go along with many other hilarious stunts

So in the end, it is cute how daring Drew is to try something new but it scares me that I will be hearing, "Look Mom, no hands!" a lot in the next couple years. Not to mention a whole lot of tantrums when stuff doesn't work. This is when I hear snickers from people saying, "Oh I thought she knew everything about kids? Haha we knew she would come to her senses!" They are right, Drew is teaching me A LOT! One good thing is that being a teacher has given me tons of patience! I did always like the little tough boys with the soft spot in their heart for me anyways :)

Here is a video of me trying to encourage him to not give up his big idea. (He had already done it once before I got the camera) It may look like I'm torturing him since he is crying, but notice how fast the tears turn off when he tries again.