My favorite

I've read a couple of articles in parenting magazines talking about the hidden truth of parenting: that you'll probably have a favorite kid. But the good part is, your favorite child will be in constant rotation. I've found this to be so completely accurate in my short year of parenting two.
When Dawson was born, he was such an easy newborn. I LOVED his first 8 weeks (probably more so because of the hell I went through during Bennett's first 8 weeks). He pretty much never cried and nursed better and slept longer than Bennett did. At that time, it seemed so overwhelming to parent Bennett. I didn't want to be his mom at the moment. He was at the peak of terrible twos and would start bawling his eyes out if I looked at him wrong. Dawson was by far my favorite.
Then Bennett mellowed out...and Dawson UN-mellowed. He started teething at 5 months and turned into a very difficult baby. He cried constantly and wanted to be held constantly. And he would scream relentlessly if he had to wait in his chair for food. He was so not my favorite for at least 3 or 4 months.
Now the tables are turning again. After Dawson cut his first 6 teeth, he was back to his happy baby self. He loves to wrestle with Bennett and climb on furniture and feed himself and dance to music. And he gloriously naps for a combined 4 hours every day. Bennett however is in a funk. I don't know what his deal is these days but I find myself losing patience with him so quickly. He's driving me crazy. He's a terrible listener right now, and he's not a people-pleaser (aka: pushover) with his friends anymore. He hits and bites when somebody takes something from him. He desperately needs a nap during the day but if he sleeps for even 20 minutes, he'll take an extra hour or more to fall asleep at night and the cycle worsens. Needless to say, he's not my favorite at the moment.
I have no real point to all this ranting, but its nice to remind myself that childhood phases are SO short-lived. Before you know it, they've moved beyond whatever miserable phase they're in and morph back into the child you know and love (and secretly call your favorite).


But...despite not being my favorite at the moment, Bennett's finally entered the phase of hilarious one-liners. I've always loved hearing the goofy stuff other 3 and 4 year olds come up with but its so much funnier from the mouth of your own :)
A couple of his best ones lately:

• When my mom was watching him one day, they were both going to eat a popsicle together. Bennett tells her, "You have to take your shirt off first, Nonny."
• One day he had to do his business in the potty. I was in there with him and as he's sitting there he says, "Oh boy. This is gonna be a quick one!"
• Then yesterday my mom calls me laughing because she took him potty the other day and he's sitting there and tells her, "This is gonna be a long one, Nonny." It cracked me up that he can tell that already. Maybe he'll learn to be prepared for the "long ones" and bring a book with him.