The Simple Things, Part 2

Sometimes, something as simple as helping your child with his spoon elicits a reaction you didn't expect...

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I hope you didn't watch that whole video. If you did watch it waiting for something great to happen, I apologize. Lucky for you, though, the video was a very brief portion of the tantrum that occurred last Friday while Mike was enjoying day 4 of the sun in San Diego. Allow me to set the scene for you- it was about 7:45 in the morning, and Drew had been up for 30 minutes or so, and was already dressed in his "Caution: Dragon on the loose!" shirt, which would make for perfect foreshadowing if this were a book or movie. The boys were happily eating breakfast when Drew asked for some help with his spoon and his Wheaties. Apparently I helped him in a very wrong way, infuriating him and causing him to fling his spoon and soggy Wheaties down, thus landing him in time-out. That time-out turned into seven or eight (I lost track) consecutive time-outs (each one minute and 45 seconds long), because that stubborn kid would NOT apologize, and the rule here is you can't get out of time-out until you apologize and give a hug. So, every minute and 45 seconds, I'd go to the steps and say, "Drew, you got a time-out because you threw your spoon and cereal, and you screamed at Mommy. You need to say sorry." And every time Drew would either say, "NO!" or he would scream in my face. Staying calm and being persistent paid off, though, and finally he apologized and gave me a hug. Then as we walked to the kitchen and Drew saw his soggy cereal on the table, he picked up his spoon and said, "Throw!" and motioned like he was going to throw the spoon again. I said, "No, Drew. Do not throw that spoon!" He said, "Throw! Throw!" I said, "Drew, if you throw that spoon again, you're going to go back to time-out." "Peeeeeeeeezz!" Drew begged (which cracked me up- he uses his manners to beg me to do something naughty- he's done this before when he wants to throw something when he's kind of mad). I told him again that he'd go to time-out, and he decided it wasn't worth it, so he set the spoon on the table. I considered that a small victory.

The funny thing is that later that day I was looking back over Drew's calendar from his first year to find some information for my sister Becky, and when Drew was about 6 1/2 months old, I'd written, "You are so stubborn!" I had no idea what I was in for- and I probably still don't!