Saturday, April 1, 2006

Another Milestone

Shef is really a delightful child. He’s a great companion, he makes funny jokes, and of course, there’s that shake your booty stuff that’s pretty much completely irresistible.

All of this makes it that much more shocking to me that, beginning precisely on his second birthday, he significantly upped his frequency of oppositional behavior. This morning, for example, as I tried in vain to uncurl him from the fetal position he’d assumed in protest when I’d rudely suggested it was time to get dressed, I sighed loudly and said, “Shef, you just have to cooperate.”

“No coperate,” he said simply, rubbing his face into the carpet. This felt like a critical moment – a preview, if you will, of what will be typical behavior for many years to come.

3 comments:

mj said...

Boy does that sound familiar. Devin hit two and was just about on his own from there. I hope you do not resort to the hopeless state of parenting to which I descended. He must have been three and a half and would not cooperate, to say the least, as we were getting ready to go out the door in the morning. I was going to be late for my first hour class and I let out with, "You little bastard!" He didn't cry, I did, for hours. And I have been confessing the sin for 20 years. As I've said a zillion times. Devin was the epitome of willful and hard to raise.

And all that stuff about being fun to be with, a fabulous companion. So true. Today he's just as willful and just as funny, bright, passionate, and a great companion.

My suggestion, ship him to Cupcake's for a time out!

KC said...

hi, cc--

shef had six time-outs today.

we're sticking to the super nanny protocol.

"have a chime-out," shef says when he's failed to heed the warnings. he totally knows the score.

it is a relief knowing that he could turn out like dev. not too shabby,

mi said...

Some days Hayden spends more time-out than time-in. Other days he is perfect. Go figure. At least Shef told you he isn't going to "coperate" so you don't have unfair expectations!