Trying hard to get some of the good in with the little bit of bad

Despite our efforts to keep Aiden's ears from hearing our less than appealing words, the other day he said one. Now, in my defense it cannot be directly linked to me, but it was one of the habit words I've been having trouble kicking. He was sitting in his car seat trying to put his cup into the cup holder in front of him, but slightly out of his reach. After a couple of failed attempts to stick it in place, he threw the cup onto the floor of the car and said "Cwap! Cwap, cwap cwap!" Uh oh. That's the first of many, I'm sure.

This boy has been an adventure, to say the least. He is mostly willing to try anything, from adventurous foods to slightly heart stopping acrobatics. I have tried, as his mother, to keep my opinions to myself about things, and let him form his own theories about life. For example, we went out to eat over the weekend, and the salads came topped with fresh sliced mushrooms. No reason to panic, I simply removed them as fast as I could and handed the fungi to my son who promptly dipped every one of them into ranch dressing and ate them up. That theory has worked with most things: don't flip out when he falls, and likely he won't panic either, don't let him see my true feelings about things such as onions, mushrooms, anything green and slimy or pickled, and try not to stand in his way of things that truly may become a love of his later on in life.

Since he was old enough to crawl up the stairs at the playground, he has been a fan of the biggest, highest and fastest slides. He is a climber, and, short of doing anything outright dangerous, we let him try. Always with adult supervision of course. The other morning after I got off work in the morning I took him to the park just because I love him. He was trying to climb a twelve foot ladder made of thin, horizontal poles, and I vetoed that right quick. Then, he went to a smaller more stable climbing apparatus, and though it was still tricky for him, I just stood by waiting for the possibility that he may need help, but prevented myself from intervening unless necessary. He struggled to the top, huffing and puffing, and as he got onto his feet and turned toward me, he had an incredible grin of joy and accomplishment. "Ah did it!!" He cried, and I applauded him. That's right buddy, I so knew you could!