Today was my first day leaving the house for a job in about a year. As I've said before, working remotely has its perks, and one of those is lunch time meet ups with your kid. I think not having those opportunities is going to be the hardest part of this job. There's a lot of talk about remote work a day or two a week, which is awesome, but I suspect in my role that it will be awhile before I can realistically do that, even if it's official policy.
In any case, I came home today to the most affectionate boy ever. I can't tell you how many times he demanded hugs, but it was very sweet. I can't even put into words how wonderful it is that he bonds with me like this. Clearly he's going to have a slightly hard time adjusting to this new reality. To be dramatic, when you include weekends, vacations and a year of telecommuting, I've been home or with him for more than half of his life!
Simon has a lot of adjustments coming his way, and some are harder than others to teach him. Obviously the mother load (see what I did there?) is going to be potty training. Diana did a short trial with underwear, but he didn't seem ready. Also, for some reason he won't get out of bed when he wakes up, until we come get him. It would be great if he'd just quietly play in his room. He has also, generally, had all the food that he likes, but as his tastes narrow (hopefully temporarily), he'll need to adjust because once the "kitchen is closed," that's it.
I don't want to suggest that we've always tried to accommodate his every whim, because we haven't. He has been able to get his way more in certain ways than others, but I think we've kept him reasonably flexible. I would say that eighteen months ago, we tried to prepare an absolute ideal for him around bedtime, and that bit us in the ass when we traveled. Now, we've had him sleep in strange beds in hotels, and he has generally adapted.
The ease of Simon's ability to adjust and adapt seems directly related to his ability to communicate. While he's making great strides in his overall speech, he still struggles at times to tell us what he means. Fortunately, I also find he's understanding what we tell him. Just today, he understood and accepted that I couldn't take him outside to help me grill the chicken, because it was too cold. He's used to "helping" in that situation, and I think even a month ago he would flip out if I didn't let him.
It's funny that I can see now how we might have made Simon a little high maintenance at times, but what a relief that we now catch ourselves doing it. It's not that we deny him stuff just to let him deal with the adversity, but we will no longer be trained by that sweet, innocent little face!
Now if we can just get him to eat some kind of protein that isn't hot dog...
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