spew

I am tickled today. Do you ever have one of those days where you keep thinking of little things that make you laugh & then start giggling to yourself uncontrollably? That's probably my favorite thing ever. No, strike that, it's even better when it's with a good friend sharing the giggles but I'll settle for a lone gigglefest. I have many little thoughts that are dependable snicker-makers.

Evan & I were cruising along, listening to Bohemian Rhapsody in the car (what? I'm old & have become a radio curmudgeon). If you can hear that song without thinking about Wayne's World, then hats off to you & your sophisticated ass. I saw that piece of cinematic brilliance when I was in 6th grade & my poor father somehow got stuck taking me to see it. That theater was PACKED, kids my age snuck in & were filling up the aisles I tell you. I've never seen that happen before or since.

Anyway, for some odd reason my favorite part of that stupid movie is Garth's reaction to having the drunk dude ride with them. There is rarely a week that goes by that I don't tell someone (Marcel mostly but sometimes the kids) "If you're going to spew, spew into this" in my best Garth voice. Then I start tittering to myself like it's the wittiest line of all time. There are several scenes in that movie that are probably actually funnier but that's the one that sticks with me - if I'm sick I can generally count on my mom to give me those instructions as well, bless her.

So I was giggling in the car & trying to explain to Evan why it was so funny - his funny bone is mostly tickled by raspberry noises & Ben putting things on his head these days - so I had to look it up when I got home. I watched the clip on youtube & said to myself, "That's really not that funny," but then a tee-hee-hee burst out & off I went again, cackling like a loon.

Here, you can partake in my enjoyment (or roll your eyes at my immaturity) if you like:


Anyway, sorry I've been ducking out of my blogging duties recently. I've been a bit lost for words. Not just my brain melting but our house has been taken over by a demon. Yes, Ben has reached a new developmental milestone that has turned him into an ass-hat.

Sorry, I shouldn't call my toddler names but geez he's a jerk sometimes! Our discipline routine used to consist of us saying "No!" or "Stop that!" Lo & behold he would stop it. If things escalated beyond that, there was a timeout in his room while we all calmed down for like 2 minutes then all was good. Nowadays the situation is more like this:

Ash: Bennn, stop that please.
Ben: No! Nononononono, mama!! STOP IT MAMA! Move awaaaaaaay!
Ash: (to myself) <<what the hell is happening?>>
         (to Ben)  BEN! STOP!
Ben: NO!!! STOP STOP STOP STOP NO NO NONOOOOO!
Ash: <<I am losing this battle.>>
         That's it! You're going to your room!

Then he proceeds to tear his room apart & start sobbing & saying "I'm sad" in a way that breaks my heart every time even though I know he's up to no good & manipulating me.

So, now I'm making an appointment with our family care cottage place to discuss better discipline for our growing toddler. Oh joy. A few people suggested making sure he didn't have an ear infection or something since the personality change came in like a strong breeze one day just out of the blue. I secretly hoped it was something like that - I know it's bad to hope that your child is having physical pain that causes him to be turd but that stuff can be treated whereas a developmental change is a stink that can't be unstunk. The doctor gave him an all-clear on any infections or physical reasons for the crazies & the early childhood nurse said it's pretty typical of soon-to-be 3 year olds.

On the plus side, he has moved up at daycare! He used to be a Joey but now he's a Dolphin so we're very proud of him. His speech is definitely improving & he's eating a tiny bit better these days too. Also, the slowest toilet-training of all time is still plodding along - some days he nails it with lots of pee-pee'ing in the potty & he's not a fan of having poo in his diaper anymore so we keep explaining that he needs to ask for the toilet before, not after the pooping. We're getting there, people, we're getting there ... eventually.

And oddly, even with this moodswinging drama, he's still an awesome big brother! He absolutely adores Evan & loves making him laugh as much as possible - they crack me up together. There are many, many times where he gets a little carried away & almost crushes Evan so we have to supervise very closely but it's all out of love so it's hard to be mad about the trampling.

Evan is 7 months old now & is still pretty awesome. Rolls around the room like a crazy man & will hopefully be sitting up one of these days but I'm really hoping crawling is still in the distant future because that's a whole new set of headaches. A lovely elderly woman stopped me in Target this morning to compliment me on how cute he is - she actually laughed & said "You did very well with him, you should be proud." That delighted me because I was too lazy to take him out of his pj's this morning & half the time he's covered in rusk remnants or food that I forgot or missed.

He's still slaying it with the food by the way - smooshed up sweet potato for him last night, which he devoured. It's fun experimenting with a kid who enjoys food!

Anyhoo, the food lover is grouchy & on my lap, smacking the computer so I'm going to go before he loses my place again.