i'm bored...{the challenges of 7 and a half}

While taking pictures of Liam, Kieran laid down next to me with "the look".

I get it a lot lately and when I tell him, he ends up giggling, because he knows exactly what I'm talking about. "Where's my Kieran? Where's my sweet baby?", I ask him.

His smile returns because he knows that when he says he's bored, it really just means I want you to pay attention to me. 

It's easy to get lost taking pictures of the girls because they actually want me to and will often ask. It's even easier to take pictures of Liam since he's the baby baby, and invariably, the last.

Kieran's my first though, and I'm learning each day how much I don't know about parenting a 7 and a half year old. 

I honestly feel like he is in between the "whatever Mommy says, I'll do without thinking stage, to the I'm becoming quite the independent little guy stage...as it should, but I can't say that I always like it.

It has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with him and that's the part that is so difficult. 

That being said, I'm learning about empathy with limits;

limit setting to let him know that I care, while thinking on his level to best understand him.

When all else fails and he says he's bored, there's nothing that a good hug cannot cure, along with a good dose of being tickled. 

And, when he says, "I'm bored",

that's my cue.