Sigh

I was mostly kidding when I wrote the bad baby bubbleducks post about Sam hitting Jack and causing him to get stitches. Not kidding about the incident, but kidding about Sam being mean.

I have some bad news. I might have laughed too soon.

Jack was SUCH A CHALLENGING TODDLER. I cannot overstate this. He was mean to other kids. He bit EVERY kid in his path for a while, even if they just looked at him wrong. For a while, I couldn't take him to do anything where other kids were going to be. We are talking about like a six month span where he was basically quarantined and if he was taken out I regretted it. But we are talking about like a more than TWO YEAR span in which he was not to be entirely trusted around other children. It is only now, at four and half that I can rest reliably sure that he is not going to use physical force against another child if he disagrees with them over, say, what shape a leaf is, or who should have a red ball vs. a blue one.

I was SO SO SO hoping to avoid this fate the second time around. You know the kids at the playground who sit calmly off to the side and sort of observe everyone else while sucking their thumb? I would LOVE that child. It would mean no embarrassed apologies, no constant vilegence, and no debates about whether or not to bite him back.

Sam was the easiest baby in the world. We were so pleased with ourselves. Oh, he is going to be just the opposite of Jack, we said. Easy at every turn. Lies all lies. He is a crazy toddler, just like J was. He might even have MORE energy and certainly a higher propensity for upending full buckets of toys and making messes. He is fighting me on his afternoon nap. He's teething and not happy about it.

We went to a playgroup today with about 15 toddlers. I saw my future with him, laid right out in front of me. Nuts. The kid was nuts. I actually heard myself say "Sam, don't be a bully" within the first two minutes. He stole toys. He threw balls at kids. He tried to hit a baby. He tore off down the hall with a forbidden cup of M&Ms. He took at least 6 kids' sippy cups.

At one point, a lot of kids were quietly (quite is relative here) playing in the living room and he sort of stood up in the center of it all and turned around in a circle. I got an eerie feeling that he was surveying the landscape to see what kind of havoc he could possibly reek next.

And so here we are. Just please please let us NOT let the biting begin.

Adventures at the Bad Baby Bubbleducks Corral

He looks so innocent, with his sweet curls, but we all know the truth. Deep down he is a mean machine. His favorite word lately is "na na na na" accompanied by a sweeping motion with his hand to convey the message, "Not just no, absolutely not." He is also fond of "my" for mine and "peas" for "Give me that now, I don't really care if it is yours or not."


His intentions were confirmed last night when he hit Jack on the head with a doctor's kit (please note the irony) hard enough to split his head open pretty good. Then, we assume in an effort to conceal the evidence, while we were contending with a fountain of blood and screams, he toddled into the playroom to squirrel away the evidence back in the toy box. By the time we turned back to him, he was contentedly playing with his piano, smiling like he had nothing to do with it.


While he fell right to sleep in bed with a clean conscience, Jack and I headed off to the Urgent Care center where he earned himself his first set of stitches.


At the ER, when asked what happened, Jack at first remained mute on the subject. Then, finally, he says, "Someone slapped me." The doctor sort of looks at me curiously. Then Jack follows up with a quiet whisper, "it was my baby."


Luckily all seems o.k. this morning at the corral. When Sam woke up I said to him, "Sam, you have to be nice to Jack!" Jack looked up and said, "But Mom, Sam didn't do any-fang to me.............yet...."

J Art

Every week in Jack's preschool we get a page with a letter on the sheet and you have to practice writing the letter then fill the page with things that start with that letter. He has had some good ones in the previous weeks, but I thought this one was particularly impressive. I mean, look at how neat his printing is getting! Plus the drawings are really cute, the jack in the box has a little stem (be it pink), the juggler has three balls, and the jack in the box is in a box just as he should be. We are beyond the scribble scrabble days, it would seem.

He is also really into states lately and today read "Virginia" by himself. Crazy smart child, whatever floats your boat.

Sounds about right to me

in the car

Jack: "My stomach really hurts, mom!"

Me: "I'm sorry. Does it feel like you need to poop or does it feel like you need to throw up?"

pause, considering

Jack: "It really says it wouldn't like to do any of those things."

Umm, yeah

I spent three hours the other day, no really THREE HOURS STRAIGHT, cleaning up the boys' playroom. The same day I go to my room for about 10 minutes to put away clothes and come back to this..."But Sam wanted some CEREAL mommy and we were HUNGRY!"

Baby Einstein Animals

I tend to have children that are freakish about animals. Sam is developing right on course. He LOVES dogs and cats. He has never watched any TV show, but here is the video of the first time I showed him the Baby Einstein with lots of animals. You'll have to judge for yourself if you think he liked it.

Update on my inchworm

The second swimming class was yesterday and again the inchworm made some progress. He only refused to do one thing and even did that finally once some concessions were made to assure that his face had the least possible ability to touch the water.

That isn't the best part, however, that was after swimming.

Walking to the car

Mom: Wow Jack you sure did great today! I was so proud of you!

Jack: Yeah, mom, I was swimming and I told you to watch me, but then you didn't. Why didn't you?

Mom: Oh, sorry bud, next time I'll make sure I am watching you when you call me. But I'm still so proud of you for being such a big boy and being brave!

Jack: Yes I was so brave

Mom: And I was so proud of that. Weren't you proud of yourself?

Jack: Oh yeah, I love myself.