Milestone

Today, friends, we reached a milestone.

Today was the first day that I was not counting the minutes until bedtime.

You see, since boy came into our life three weeks ago, he has been expecting constant entertainment, and failure to meet his expectations was met with a battery of "I'm bored" and "What should we do now? What should we do after ...? What should we do after that?" (Yes, one after the other, just like that.

Over and over, I've answered the "I'm bored" with all sorts of things I'm sure my mother said to me:
"Do you need me to give you something to do?" (More of a threat than a legitimate question, as I rifled through a mental list of feasible chores. This was definitely my mother.)
"It's not my job to entertain you."
"Boredom is a choice, a lack of imagination."
And the most profound: "Congratulations."

But today... Ah, today was different. Today he occupied himself, finally learning that the only choices I ever give him when I'm busy are to play with toys in his room or to play with toys in his bedroom. Today, he didn't pester me with the plans for the day because he knew I'd only say what I always say: "I don't want to plan out every minute of my day" (Sidenote: This is totally false. More accurately, I don't want to share my plans. But he doesn't need to know that.) Today was a happy mix of time with Kate, time with Matt, time alone, time together as a family.

And that meant that when dinner was over and bedtime rolled around, we were still enjoying each other's company. No behavior problems. No irritations. No scoldings. Today was the first totally pleasant, enjoyable day we've had together. Milestone.