Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Healthy self esteem or arrogant jerk?




You decide. Weston is really turning into a boy. Before I had kids I could picture myself with a baby, or with a young, cute toddler. I would be the glowing mom with the flowing blonde hair, flawless skin, and shining white teeth. I would be wearing a spotless cream-colored irish wool sweater and some smart, wrinkle-free khaki pants. In a size 4. Oh, and boots! Brown leather, the kind that make you drool, but that you would never actually buy because they are too impractical and expensive. Weston would be the dimpled blond cherub, in a linen sailor suit. People would stop dead in their tracks wherever we went, in sheer wonder of our perfectness and cuteness. And yeah, it was great while it lasted. My fantasy, I mean. Which ended with the first slash of the OB's really sharp knife.

I could never picture anything beyond the small toddler phase. I didn't have any idea how to imagine having an actual kid. Now I have the kid, and I have no idea what to do with him. In the last week, he has made the following statements, multiple times:

"I am always right!"
"I'm the smartest in the whole world!"
"I'm the leader!" and my favorite,
"I know everything!"

What to say? I have tried 'Nobody knows everything' and 'Nobody is always right' but he insists 'I do/I am!' Who can argue with that? Lloyd just thinks it's funny, and good for him to be so confident, but I'm not so sure. On the other hand, the universe has plenty of time and opportunity to grind him down and remind him of his many failings in the decades to come, so I probably don't need to waste my time and effort imposing humility on him now.

2 comments:

ann daggett said...

i told you it would get better....lol....and there is so much to come....when one chapter ends, its another.... i dont know if you are lucky or unlucky to not have had a daughter, let me tell you... girls are something else.......god gives us what we can handle i guess, with a little help from wine and pills... ha ha ha

Doraville said...

Whoa! Looks like the McNeely DNA is kicking in here. One of the many, many little known facts that I know is that it can take a loooong time to get over it.