We Don't Hit

Amanda likes to hit and poke and push. A lot. I think it's the only power her little body has against Sarah telling her what to do and Andy ALWAYS trying to play the "I'm going to get you" game. He says he doesn't, but he does. She hits me too, but that's because she doesn't like what I have to say half the time. It's time for a nap? I have to hold your hand in the parking lot? I can't have a snack? Mean Mommy, smack.

My friend, April from New Jersey, not to be confused with April from Orlando, has a little boy, Riza, who is two months younger than Amanda. She blogs all the time, she is much more consistent than I am, about his craziness and latest tricks. It's funny to me to read all the things that he is doing right at the same time or right after Amanda does them. No matter that they are miles and miles away, kids this age do the same stuff.

A few days ago she was posting about how Riza hits all the time. She wrote: "Then I growl something about how "we don't hit" like our family is in that category of families that don't believe in smacking. Who believes in smacking?!" Every time I think about this it just makes me laugh. We say the exact same thing to Amanda. All of us, even Andy and Sarah. "No hitting! We don't hit!" The reason why I find it so funny is what else would you say? "Bravo, nice smack, that's how we do it in our family!" It would be funny, but would definitely not stop the hitting and we're not big fans of that.

April's blog is very refreshing because Riza is her first baby. The majority of what she writes is sunshine and rainbows. Even when she was getting up with him at 4 a.m. she had nothing but positive things to write, about how different life was that early in the morning and how much you could get accomplished. I, the jaded mother, would just shake my head and say "you just wait". I wish I had kept a blog when Andy was little so I could go back and read about all of our adventures when everything was new and exciting. When we went to the park every morning to meet our friends and feed the ducks and didn't have a care in the world. When he took 2-3 hours naps EVERYDAY!

Back then we didn't have to worry about hitting. He didn't have anybody to hit and most of the time he got what he wanted. Poor Amanda has to fight for everything and is trying to keep up in the big kids' world. She's doing amazingly well and will be fiercely independent someday, but for now she just needs to hit us every once in awhile. Then when we tell her "We don't hit!", because we're not one of those families, she'll give us one more for good measure.