It's just a phase

This is it, just short of a year on the job I've discovered the secret to parenting. Everything is a phase. What's that? Everyone else knows this already? I didn't.

Actually, I guess I did sort of know. It makes sense that nothing a baby does will last forever since babies aren't babies forever (with the obvious exception of mine) but I wasn't doing a good job of reminding myself of this. Now whenever I say anything about B I put the word "phase" at the end of it and magic happens. If I'm talking about a good thing, like how he loves to randomly stop what he's doing and give out hugs, it makes me remember to enjoy it since it won't last. He is going through an absolutely heart-melting affectionate phase. (Deep down I truly believe he will hug me every day for the rest of my life but I am told otherwise so I am trying the phase idea on for size here.) If it's something not so good, it makes me feel better to call it a phase. He is just going through a little 2 year phase of never sleeping! See? Doesn't that sound better?

When you are living it and you are tired it feels like things are going to be the same way forever but they won't. Every time I need to remind myself of that I just think back to B's most annoying phase yet: that time when he insisted on residing inside my body and just flat out refused to breathe for himself. That really sucked and felt eternal but it ended too.