Overcoming neatness

I am a very organized person (stop laughing, everyone who knows me - I know that's an understatement). :) I dislike messes and would be quite happy if the house could just stay in "neat as a pin" order all the time. I like everything to have it's place and more than that, everything should BE in it's place at all times.

Life isn't really like that. And life with a baby REALLY isn't like that. So I'm working on overcoming my unreasonable desire for a perfectly neat life. And I'm finding that this takes quite a bit of effort. For example, I just watched as Jonathan dumped his wooden blocks, his plastic blocks, his other plastic blocks, and a basket of sundry toys all over the floor. Does he really need to play with all of them? Of course not! But is it good for him to learn that pulling on something results in gravity dumping them on the floor? Absolutely. He's exploring his world and I need to encourage that and worry about picking them up later. Last night is another good example: Gabe and I were feeding him dinner and Jonathan didn't want to be fed. He wanted to do it himself! So I mentally braced myself and then gave him his own food. Which he promptly spread all over his tray, hands, face, arms, and legs...but some of it did get in his mouth. :) Was it a mess? Completely. In fact, we had to give him a bath afterward. Was it worthwhile? Of course! I could sit there and watch his mind processing so much as he worked to pick up food from his tray and practiced bringing his spoon to his mouth.

I think that this will probably be an ongoing process for me. It's not a natural reaction to think "heck, let him get his food in his hair - he's learning!" But I think that it's probably one of the most important things for me to be learning right now. Because I want to raise an adventurous boy who will jump in puddles and play in the mud and explore his life without fear of a mother sighing and saying "not again" to his dirty clothes.

So friends, you can pray for me as I learn to overcome neatness. :)