If your child had a “theme song,” what would it be?
So something about Jonah.
The kid is NON-STOP. As soon as he wakes up, a mental timer in his head starts counting down the minutes until it’s time to do “ALL THE THINGS.”
He HATES being at home. We can thank the pandemic for that. We did our best at making our home a sensory haven, but Jonah is simply DONE with staying home.
Jonah would rather do NOTHING, freezing, in the pouring rain, for 6 hours hanging out in the local high school parking lot, because there are 4 geese there, than do ANYTHING inside at home, regardless of how “fun” it may be.
He tolerates his tablet for maybe 15 minutes. If I didn’t set it right in front of him, he wouldn’t even care about it. He yells “‘all done’ remote!” If he sees me trying to put a movie on the TV for him.
By 7:30 am, he is chomping at the bit to go ALL the places. He wants to go to the zoo or the Childrens museum or the beach or the OTHER beach, or “Target Store” to get a toy…
And he will relentlessly VERBALLY request to go places over and over and over again.
He will climb up me until he is speaking right into my face and barrage me with “I want to go to… ___________” over and over again.
And if I don’t respond in time, Jonah will make his “own fun” at home and I typically won’t like it…
There will be holes in the wall, or all the random objects painted, or the kitchen sink flooded, or the couch torn up or… (you get the picture).
Part of me gets annoyed… “Honestly, buddy, all I want to do is finish my second cup of coffee.”
But then I remember how hard Jonah has worked to get to this point.
Unprompted verbal requests.
Asking appropriately.
Waiting patiently without having a meltdown.
SO many victories represented by the incessant barrage of verbal requests.
There was a time not too long ago I would have been thrilled to just be “annoyed” by Jonah’s nonstop verbal requests.
So we have simply been doing “all the things” for spring break.
Hitting baseballs. Playing tennis. Hiking. Playing at the bouncy house. Swimming. Playing at the indoor obstacle course. Rock wall climbing. Going to the beach. Going to the OTHER beach. Walking the waterfront and eating ice cream. Going to the zoo. Going to the petting zoo.
What used to be our “fun outing” for the week, has become the “fun outing” for the MORNING. Because as soon as he gets home, he wants to go on to the next “adventure.”
I swear if Jonah’s life had a theme song, it would be:
“… Ain’t nothin’ gonna to break my stride
Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no
I got to keep on moving
Ain’t nothin’ gonna break my stride
I’m running and I won’t touch ground
Oh no, I got to keep on moving.”
#ausome
