Most toddlers are adorable and mine is no exception. Someone that adorable aught to have no difficulty giving you a hug or sitting next to you through their favorite movie, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

He’ll give you a hug, but it’s going to be on his terms. He may give you an unsolicited running hug where he approaches out of nowhere and grabs your legs. You may want to protect certain body parts, but the sentiment is sure sweet.

Those hugs are also typically over as quick as they began. But take that running hug as a sign to pick him up at your own risk. He may give you a hug if you are extremely lucky. Otherwise, he may scream bloody murder until you put him back down on the ground.

My point is this. I frequently want to pick my son up and give him a hug– and I’m not typically a very huggy person. I never know if a social situation calls for a hug and hesitating for one second can make things outright awkward. But something about your own kids brings it out.

Toddlers are as buoyantly energetic as they are cute. Maybe you try to cut them off from the 20^th lap around the kitchen and living room by picking them up to give them a hug. You’ll wish you hadn’t.

You pick them up and body parts flail through the air. Nothing is intentional but you could get smacked in the head. Kicked in the unmentionables. Elbowed in the chest. Anything is possible. Everything is possible. I’m pretty sure it’s all happened at least one hundred times.

This is why I got really excited when Jamie showed enough patience to have a book read to him. For months and months he’d want to get down the second we opened one up. It’s usually the only time he’ll sit with you for an extended period of time –probably because we do this right before bed.

That’s also about the only time of day when we typically get a good hug picking him up. It’s all a gamble. You win some and you really, really lose some. But it’s still worth the effort.

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