Perhaps spurred on by the Olympics, E has developed an interest in sports. He's a bit precocious, playing at a level usually only attained by athletes at least twice his age.
His sport of choice: antagonizing his parents.
Like a matador in the bullfight, little E works hard to get a charge. His favorite arena is the highchair but the living room will work just fine.
As mentioned previously, my small boy has recently learned to assert his opinions (or, more likely, has started to realize that he has opinions). At breakfast this morning, he refused even the first bite of his cereal. Though he's eaten cereal with gusto since the age of 6 months today the sight of the bowl brought tears. I was unprepared for this strong of a protest to such a mild and well tolerated entree from a child of barely 1. I thought I had a year to steel myself for these battles.
I called for backup and we decided to fight back (thanks Nana!). He was going to eat the cereal or he was going to get down.
I mounted a surprise attack, slipping the spoon in his mouth while it was wide open in mid-scream. When ignored, he stopped crying. Then he'd eat a few bites. Then renew his protests. We got through that bowl of cereal, eventually.
Lunch went smoothly but dinner was fought in two separate battles. The enemy this time was green beans. At E's second seating he eventually got through most of the beans (without tears!).
E is learning to imitate. If I opening my mouth wide he'll (sometime) mimic. In goes the food. Since he actually likes what we're giving him if I can get the food in far enough he'll cheerfully chew and swallow.
E's other event is chair standing. He got a nice soft child-sized chair for his birthday. He loves this chair and used to spend long bouts of time nicely sitting down in it while playing with toys or books. Then he started standing up in it.
The child has about as much balance as a drunken sailor so we're quite concerned about his safety. When he stands, we say "sit down". This worked rather well at first. E clearly understands the phrase. He would sit down. Sometimes he'd even stay sitting.
Being the true athlete that he is, E took his game to the next level. "SIT" now gets him grinning. He teeters perilously on the edge of the chair. We enforce sitting. He gets back up.
We take the chair away. He can practice tumbling when we get better insurance.
He's stubborn, he's determined, he indefatigable . But he's not brave.
We took E to the indoor playground today in hopes that the activity would tire him out enough to actually take an afternoon nap. Our boy was having a wonderful time climbing, walking, crawling over and through the soft obstacles when he encounter an older boy in a batman mask. Not a full-face mask, more like a Zorro mask but with an extra flourish at the top.
Little E fell apart. It started slowly with a chin quiver but quickly dissolved into an all out sob. My baby was terrified. He was somewhat comforted when I picked him up. Then he saw the mask again and it was all over. Time to go.
Halloween may get interesting.
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