Click Somewhere Else if You're Tired of Stories About My Children

Sorry, but my kids are sooooo entertaining! They make me laugh ALL the time. (They also make me scream, too, but that's not fun to read about. YIKES!)

I've been experiencing some "push-back" from Nick lately that's been quite frustrating. He's testing his powers of negotiation and resistance and it's draining! Why can't he understand the laws of physics specifically state that the energy expended to bring Legos, magnetic building blocks , dinosaurs and Hotwheels downstairs is directly equal to the energy it requires to pick them up and carry them back upstairs? Daily battle. Daily. Yesterday, halfway back from our walk from the park, he sat down on the sidewalk and said he was too tired to go on. Nisht gut! He then went on to throw a full blown, stage five tantrum all the way home, biting me, kicking me, slapping me. Highly embarrassing, frustrating and exhausting. I can't work with this!

He just woke up for the new day. I was listening in on a phone conference and had my phone muted and on speakerphone. He told me, "That's ANNOYING me" which is funny from a barely-five-year-old no matter how you slice it. I said my good mornings to him (my phone was muted and these phone conferences are highly repetitious and boring) and he had a Lego helicopter in his hand, ready to play. I said, "Nick, are we going to have a better day today?" I wish you could see his little shirtless body, his terrible buzzed head and his big, full of expression face. He put his hand on his hip, looked at his tummy (because he has personified his tummy and it is his imaginary friend)and said in a stage whisper to his tummy, "Tummy? Are we going to have a good day today?" And Tummy answered in his own "voice," "Ya, if we go to the park or something." Then Nick looked at me with a "we'll see" expression and shrug and kindly restated his tummy's response as if I need a translation.