Our 'Spirited' Child

That is the term that the pediatrician used when she was talking to us recently about our 2 year old, Cooper. She said that he was 'spirited', which James and I took as just that. We often mock her wording in situations where he is running around crazy in our house or throwing a tantrum...'oh, he's just spirited!' She even recommended a book, Raising Your Spirited Child that would help us understand his needs, and our plan of attack for raising him.

I think of Cooper as kind of a Labrador puppy. He can't be put in the house all day and be expected to behave - he needs to be taken out and run to make him tired enough where he will listen, behave and sleep at night! I don't mind this, because we have found that it works 90% of the time, and he is a much easier kid to deal with when he is active.

There are many days when James will get home from work and I will say, 'Cooper needs to be taken out and run.' Meaning he needs to go to an open space and burn off energy. We either go for a walk/run with him to the park when the weather is nice, or we go to an indoor park when we need to stay indoors. Even a trip to Target will help burn some extra energy.

Don't get me wrong, I would rather have a super energetic kid than one that needs to be motivated, so we aren't trying to change him. We are just trying to manage him so he can not only run around like a crazy person, but also have the focus to sit at the table to do an activity or learn numbers and letters.

Oh karma,...you trickster!