Sponsored by Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.
One thing that really became real for me once we had more than one child was how distinctive their personalities can be , even as young infants. My first son was an easygoing baby who really just wanted to eat and sleep all of the time. He could put down an astounding amount of milk and then sleep for far more hours than you would expect of a newborn. He remained this way and is still a relatively laid back kid. I was rather smug about the whole baby thing until my daughter came along. She proved to me that each child has a pretty ingrained personality at birth. She was the exact opposite of her brother in every way and is still a handful. The rest of our kids have followed the same alternating pattern of easy then challenging, easy then challenging.
One of MY biggest challenges is making sure each child gets what they emotionally need from me based on their own personalities. My middle child has always needed a lot of my attention and focus. She thrives on one-on-one time with people. If she doesn’t get it, she feels like no one hears her. I understand where she is coming from, so I try to carve out a little quality time for us each day, even if only for a few minutes.
One of our daily rituals is our snack time conversation after I pick her up from preschool. We discuss what letters they worked on, what projects they did, what kind of juice they had. We move on to topics including her favorite colors, outfits, and what we should do for the afternoon before picking up big brother.
She often likes to talk about her snack and different shapes, so Goldfish crackers are one of her favorites. She makes up stories about the fish, counts them, sings songs with them, and then bites their heads off. (Ha ha.)
She likes the taste and novelty, I like that they are baked with real cheese and contain no artificial flavors or preservatives.
Naturally, when big brother is home, she is required to share.
(I wish I could tell you he was doing homework on the computer, sigh.)
She may only be four years old, but my daughter makes our conversations like chatting with an old friend. She compliments you on various things, tells you the weather is quite lovely, and speaks of her thoughts and feeling on everything.
It turns out the challenging kids can also be the best conversationalists. The first three years were rough with the screaming, lack of eating, tantrums, not sleeping through the night (for three years!), and communication problems. The back-talk is our current trouble, which I suspect should be resolved in about 16 years or so. However, that strong personality is also a delight in so many ways, and I can’t help but smile. She reminds me of someone…….
Do you have any stories about when Goldfish crackers added smiles to your lives? You can share your story on twitter or instagram to take part in the goldfish Tale sweepstakes! Submit your Fall Fun Goldfish Tale for a chance to win $1,000 and other prizes!