Stupidly, I thought parenting babies was the hardest phase of parenting. Surely it got easier after that, no? Sleepless nights, teething, poopy diapers...what could be worse?

Well, I'm finding out what could be worse. Parenting older kids. It's hard! And my oldest is only seven. But he's got the twin super powers of logic and back talk on his side. And I am a puny mortal, no match for such powers. When I tell him to do something and I see that flapping hand gesture (you know, to match my flapping mouth obviously) and the opening and closing mouth (you know, to demonstrate how my mouth is moving but apparently nothing of interest is coming out) I just want to scream! Where did this disrespectful kid come from?

At the same time, he's my first born. Still a baby in so many ways. And I think he's at that stage where he's trying to figure out if he's still a little boy or a somewhat bigger boy. He's testing boundaries...I just wasn't ready for my boundaries to be tested yet. Life just gets more interesting every day...sigh.