Tuesday, January 27, 2009

That Tongue

I kind of laugh now when I look back at some old posts and how I reacted when Seth first began saying things like "I'm going to kill you". Whether that is more indicative of how much I'm beginning to understand boys' behaviour and relax a little about it, or how much I've slacked off and let him get away with too much - I'm not quite sure. All I know is that "I'm going to kill you" (the first time he said it) now seems rather mild. And quite frankly funny.

To this point, he would have had his hemiglossectomy at least 1,547 times if I had carried the surgery through. I assure you, however, that his tongue is still quite intact and working well.

Lately, he has been calling everything and everyone "____head", filling in the blank with all sorts of silly little things like "pin" or "tractor" or "wheel". Although they're generally pretty mild, I have tried to nip this in the bud when I've heard him because I don't want him calling people dumbhead, or butthead (the latter which he's said ONCE, but only ONCE). One time he called Hannah a pinhead, which I rebuked him for, so he kindly corrected himself and dryly said, "okay, finhead then, mom". I was in awe at the improvement. This is just one example of his sauciness.

Short of using some sort of hot sauce, or soap, I am finding it very difficult to break him of his smart mouth. Perhaps I'm just a wimp, but I hesitate using either of those two methods, although both have been used by my oldest sister and so far her children have bore no long term ill effects that I know of, although.....ahem......it hasn't.....really.....helped.....either.... (sorry, couldn't resist). Both of my kids have such strong gag reflexes (actually throwing up), and Seth is already so fussy that I'm not willing to risk having him even more resistant to trying new foods than he already is, and I do think that doing this could promote that. But like I said, maybe I'm just wimping out.

Last night, Dave was given $10.00 by a lady in one of his condos for changing her light bulbs (despite several attempts at refusing the money - the little old lady insisted). He decided to give the kids each $5.00, so we took them to Dollarama tonight for a little treat and let them go on a massive spending spree.

It took Seth all of ten minutes to pick his items (only changing his mind once). It took Hannah one hour. ONE LONG HOUR, at which time we'd had enough and only with the threat of leaving with nothing did she finally decide. Although Seth had already picked his stuff, for pretty much the entire hour, he had the "galloping greedy gimmies" - from a wonderful Berenstain Bear book, a lesson on greediness - whining and wanting everything, so that when we got home he was not allowed to play with any of his toys. As you might imagine, this did not go over well.

I hauled his little carcass off to bed while daddy finished reading to his daughter. He lay in bed trying to decide whether or not to have a full blown tantrum, while I let him know that he was quite welcome to it if he wanted me to add to his seat of affliction. So he compromised, and rather than screaming and carrying on, he had a few things to say to me:

"MOM, I'm NOT impressed that I HAVE to go to BED!" he emphasized.

"That's too bad, my darling," I cooed sweetly. "I'm entirely tired of your attitude and your mouth."

"WELL, I'm NOT going to STAY IN BED, you know! I'm going to COME OUT again once everyone has GONE OUT!" he stated, making sure that I knew the gravity of the situation.

"If you would like to come on out, be my guest," I explained carefully, "but you might be rather surprised at the consequences of that action."

"Well......" he hesitated, "maybe I won't come all the way out, but I'll only come to the door, just to tell you that....I want you to sleep with me," he stated.

"No," I replied, "you will not get out of your bed at all."

After daddy and Hannah came in and our usual nightly routine was over, he was still slightly perturbed, so he informed me that,

"Mom, I won't allow you to snuggle me tonight."

"Alright," I said, making a move to get up and go out of the room. "Good night."

"NO, NO, NO!" he panicked. "I mean, well, what I mean is that......I won't allow you to snuggle me in YOUR BED. But you can still snuggle me in MINE." And he proceeded to grab my hand and put it on his stomach so that I could give him the "belly rub" that he so loves.

{Sigh}.... This boy of mine. He becomes more challenging every week, it seems. He leaves me banging my head against the wall one minute, laughing my face off the next, and snuggling and loving him hard in between it all.

And really, I know deep down that I wouldn't want him any other way.

Well.....mostly, anyway.

The public school system is looking better every day.

4 comments:

Mrs. Wizzle said...

at lease he doesn't use my favourite which is farthead! Have fun.......

Darla said...

I never thought of that one....oh great.....

Bekki said...

Ohhh Darla. It sounds like you have a live wire. At least he is intelligent!

I had some pretty funny things said to me when I was teaching Sunday School for the 2-4 year-olds. You just never know what's going to come out next!

Darla said...

No, Bekki, I really don't know what he's going to say next. And live wire....yes.

It's amazing how it's these types of kids that everyone ELSE usually adores, though, huh?

Right now he's doing back flips on the couch, so I better run........