(Orange is Eli's paci's name.)
He told me that Eli said goodbye to his Orange, that he had a long conversation with Orange and spoke about how he no longer needed him, but that he loved him. He gave Orange several hugs and then decided to put Orange in his mouth and go to sleep. Hearing all of this, broke me down. Hurt my heart. Made me tender. Orange is Eli's comfort, his constant.
I believe in choice. I believe in giving my children choices. With this belief I am learning that they may not always choose the way that I would, but allowing them the chance to make their own decision is what is best for them. We are letting Eli choose to say goodbye, when he's ready. We speak about it daily, getting rid of Orange, but he's not quite ready yet. And honestly, neither am I.
PS Someone else in this house is fascinated with Orange too...
2 comments:
Katie,
This is a great post! A long time ago when I was a supervisor at Fresh Fields, I had to make a rather difficult decision. I was really nervous of what my manager thought. So when I spoke to her about it she said, "It's not the decision that I would have made, but that's fine because I made the decision to let you make the call." This has stuck with me for years of work, and now as a parent I see the same logic applies. It's good to hear that other parents have to make the same decisions. Whether it's the paci, or driving at some point we have to trust them to do the right thing. (As for me... it's trusting him not to throw avocados on the floor... but I'm sure my time will come for the larger issues.)
And thanks for the blog. It's great to see what stages are headed my way!
Thank you so much Steve! You just made my day w/ your comment!
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