How you know parenting has changed you...

It wouldn't be a stretch to call my self 'Type-A'. Nor a stretch to say I am a planner, an organizer, a person who likes things 'just so'.

(you can stop chuckling now...I know I am very much all of these things....no stretching needed)

BUT....I believe (whole heartedly) that people can change. [I could go into a whole soliloquy about this, but will save that for another time].  Today I will share with you a moment I had recently where I knew being a parent had changed me.

This is not some earth shattering moment....so keep you expectations low, but it meant enough to stick out in my mind.

Two Saturdays ago [after running 19 miles and deciding that in fact that meant it was OK to be a not-so-great-mother and plop my children down in from of Horton Hears a Who while I rested my legs] Ayden (who of course didn't want to watch TV when mommy was actually letting him), decided it was time to decorate the tree.  The tree had been up for a week......just lights and no ornaments.

Thankfully, Mimi (aka Gram-e) was around and enthusiastically offered to help [yes, while I remained firmly planted on the couch].

The boys and Mimi had a great time picking up the ornaments and placing them on the tree....and I do mean placing them.  It took a few broken ornaments for Ayden to understand that you have to actually hooooook the thing on.

In true Ayden style, Ayden had a very particular way and he wanted to decorate the tree and very particular places he wanted the ornaments..........which was......directly on top of each other.

So, we now have a beautifully lit tree with three lovely heavily congested ornament hanging areas. All  of which are about three feet off the ground =)

Since birth (it feels like) it has been ingrained in me by my mother, that ornaments should hang proportionately around the tree, larger on the bottom, smaller on top, and for the placement to be proper, they must be able to hang (literally hang) from the branch without leaning on, resting against, or in any other manner touching another branch. [I have no idea where I get some of my idiosyncrasies]. So, needless to say, Ayden's 'ornament hanging style' didn't fit in my mold. 

After the split second panic of oh my goodness I have to 'fix' the tree, I felt this warm emotion roll over me of pride. It was Ayden's tree now. And we are definitely going to keep it exactly how he decorated it. So, now every time I pass the tree and see my clumps of ornaments, I think....awwww, my big boy did that and he is SO PROUD of himself for decorating the tree.

So, from my learning moment to you.....whether you are a new parent or old, don't forget what is important, and that is that you support your children (old or young) in their own path, no matter how they decide to decorate their trees along the way, it is important they have the love and support of their family.

[and don't worry, as they get older you will have ample opportunity to impart your wise tree decorating ways on them ;) ]

Here are some pictures taken on my phone from the couch.....