Instructions not included
The most common phrase I heard before we had Sean was something like "babies don't come with an instruction manual" and after having two kids, I could not agree more. When Sean was first born Tom and I were both overwhelmed and overjoyed by the newness of our child. We had no idea why he wouldn't sleep well, why he was spitting up through his nose, why he cried so much. We tried heeding the advice of one friend who told us, "Babies cry. That's it. Babies cry." A simple, subtle yet straightforward instruction that no matter what we do as parents, babies are still going to cry. Though our kids have come to us without an instruction manual, they seem to hit stages in their young lives where they begin to instruct us. Manual or not, they have many ideas of how things should proceed and how they should be treated. For example, when Audrey is too loud in church, we will take her in the back or out to the lobby to allow her to be a baby and babble, y