If you haven't quite figured it out yet, I am the mother of the world's strongest willed child. He knows what he wants, and meticulously calculates what it will take to get it. Too short? Push a chair up to get it. Too fat? Somehow wiggle his way into the small crack like a mouse. Not getting what he wants? Screams at the top of his lungs. Of course, if the latter happens, I generally ignore him, and if it goes on too long he gets his butt in timeout. Yesterday was no exception.
In the past two weeks B has learned how to climb onto our sofas on his own. I'm OK with this, because, well, this is his house too and I want him to be comfortable using our furniture. That IS what it's for. What I am NOT ok with is jumping on the furniture, standing on the furniture or having food or drink on the furniture. Those are no-no's. He really struggles most with the jumping and standing part. And who can blame him? Jumping is fun, especially when you are learning how to do it. So yesterday afternoon, he started jumping on the couch. I firmly told him no-no, that we don't do that, and that if he does it again, he'll have consequences. He got "the look" in his eyes, and the minute I turned around, was standing up, laughing his head off, jumping. He received his consequnce. Normally he'll usually whine about the situation, and then move on. This time it was different, and his response took me completely off-guard. He looked at me, LAUGHED (not just a chuckle, I am talking about a belly laugh folks!), and then said "doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe." (which is his way of saying no-no over and over again). What in the world?!?!?!?! What do you do when your kid does that? I was torn between trying not to laugh my head off, and being completely pissed off that nothing I was doing was working. And then I thought, "Oh my word. He's only 15 months old. What the crap am I going to do for the next 18 years?!?!?!" And honestly, I have no idea. All I know, is that July 27, 2010 will be forever marked in my calendar as the day I was mocked by a 15 month old. Lord help me.
