Turns out that this precious nephew of mine is teaching me more than I ever thought possible! See one thing you may or may not know about me is that I am a complete control freak and a touch of the OCD side. I wouldn't say that these are always bad qualities but I am learning how to control these a little better now and I have River to thank for this!
One of the main things that I have learned how to do is to just let things go! I realized one day not to long ago when I was keeping River that the little things don't really matter so much anymore. Sure the house needs to be cleaned, bottles made, diapers stuffed, laundry folded, etc, but wouldn't I much rather spend that time with River instead. You betcha! See this is hard for me because like I said, I am a little OCD ! But in the grand scheme of things, what does it matter that the house is dirty or clothes are still sitting in the laundry basket for a little while longer if it means that I get to spend time with the little guy and watch him grow into a little man! Now the only time these things will be getting done is when River is sleeping because the most important thing now is spending quality time with him!
Also something else that I have learned is how to say no and most of the time this means saying no to myself. For some reason I always decide to put too much on my plate and volunteer myself to do stuff when I really don't have the time. I don't have much free time right now but when I do it always seems like I am doing stuff that is completely unneccessary and mostly it is my fault. I feel like if I am sitting idol with nothing to do that I just have to find something to keep me busy and that something then turns into to 20 different things. I am still working on this one and trying to remember that it is ok to take time to do stuff for myself every once in a while, even if that is just laying on the couch and catching up on tv shows while doing absolutely nothing else!
And last but not least, I am learning patience and how to let go of my inner control freak (well maybe only a little but still working on it). I used to be a planner and have everything planned out but with River that is just a little hard to do. We work around his schedule now and that is completely fine by me. I needed to learn to go with the flow and that plans change and that is ok. It's still pretty easy to plan outings and such since River is on a pretty set schedule but sometimes that schedule changes and so do our plans!
So thank you River for teaching me all of these things even though you may not know it :)