The Small Family   

Well, I am pleased to report that all three Smalls in this household are now over their colds. This means that two of us, who shall remain nameless, are in much better moods, and one of us, who shall also remain nameless, is back in fighting form and being a tiny tyrant! I’ll let you guess which one that is…but I’ll give you a clue: He’s about the weight of a pug, though somewhat taller, and he has lovely blue eyes and beautiful blond curls. Face of an angel, attitude of a tyrant…

I shouldn’t lead you to believe His Royal Feistiness was a tyrant all week, though. He was actually quite sweet and wonderful and happy Monday through Thursday…and then came Friday…and Saturday…and somewhat on Sunday…

Like every toddler, Theo has his good days and bad days, and the good far outnumber the bad. But, he does sometimes get in an “I’m going to push every boundary that exists” mood, and those are loooooong days. :-) And that was Friday, for sure. Saturday was a little better, and Sunday was fairly pleasant. But Friday…oh, Friday….

So here’s the hard part: It’s very hard not to let him see us chuckle at some of this! Because no matter how exasperated you can get when your toddler sets out to push every one of your buttons all day long, it’s still downright amusing to see such a sweet little thing exercising his will. I mean, there he is, all of two feet tall with big, adorable eyes and a sweet little face, acting like Napoleon. It’s really quite amusing.

To demonstrate, let me give you two recent examples where Chris and I had to turn our backs to hide our smiles. In one instance, Theo wanted something, and we said no. I forget what it was, but whatever it was, Theo was incensed that we said no. And so, he let out an unearthly squall, stomped down the hall, grabbed one of Chris’s shoes, and threw it at the wall. Do I normally laugh about him throwing things? Well, no. But in this case, it was so obvious that he was furious with us and wanted to display his anger that we couldn’t help but snicker--with our backs turned, of course.

Second example was from Friday, the day of his Reign of Terror. He just started out the day in a combative mood, and it lasted all day. I think most of you know we use timeouts as a punishment for hitting. So far, that’s the only thing we use them for, because we want to get the point across that hitting is never okay, and it gets a stronger punishment than just being told “no.” We give him one warning, and if he hits again, he goes in his playpen on timeout. This seems to be working well overall. Theo will go a week or two at a time without a timeout. And in fact, earlier on Friday, Chris told him, “Do you want a timeout?” and Theo said, “Timeout!” and then stopped what he was doing. So he’s getting the concept…but sometimes he just doesn’t want to obey anyway. So in the late afternoon, Chris told Theo no about something--again, I forget what, but to Theo, it was absolutely unacceptable that Chris told him no, and so he hit Chris. Chris did the usual, “No hit, Theo, or timeout!” and this time, Theo looked at him and hit him again. So Chris took him upstairs and put him in the playpen for a minute or two. When he went over to get him out, he said, “Is Theo going to be a nice boy now?” and Theo looked right at him and spit in his face! Chris replied, “You just earned yourself another minute on timeout!” So when that minute was up, he went back over and asked Theo the same question, and Theo promptly spit in his face again! And again, he earned himself another minute on timeout. At the third round, Theo gave in and decided he’d cooperate.

So some of you might be appalled, thinking that behavior is rather bad. And I guess to some, it would be…depending on your child’s temperament and your parenting strategies and such. But in the 19 months I’ve known our little Theo, I’ve learned to appreciate (sometimes grudgingly!) his very strong will. And so, when he is so determined to get the last word, I have to turn my head to hide my smile. Is it good behavior? Well, no. Is it amusing? Well, yes…it kind of is! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken him out and had people say, “What a little angel” or something like that, and I think, “Well, yes…but oh, if you knew his temper!”

Chris and I actually figure that strong will is going to serve him very well someday. Chris and I are both so mild-mannered that sometimes people have gotten the idea they can walk all over us…which isn’t something either one of us likes. (Though push my buttons enough and you get to see my “don’t mess with me” side. Just ask Chris…he hasn’t been the recipient, but he’s seen it! Hmmm, did Theo get the temper from me after all? Mine only comes out once every few years, but when it does, I’m hopping mad and don’t soon forget!) Anyway, we actually kind of have a silent admiration for our spunky little boy, who certainly isn’t looking like he’s going to let anyone walk all over him!

But I will admit, I was exhausted by the time he went to bed Friday night. Twelve hours of him battling me on everything was a mental workout like no other. :-)

Because Friday was such a long, long day, we decided that we’d get out and about over the weekend. We had thought to go visit Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom, but they are both still recovering from some bug they caught on their cruise, so we postponed until next weekend. Instead, we headed for the zoo Saturday morning. It was a beautiful, cool fall day, and we didn’t want to waste it inside. Theo is getting to the age where he can recognize some of the animals and enjoys watching them when they move around their enclosures, so he had a good time. He especially liked the giraffes, the chimps, and some koi fish (not sure why on that last one--I didn’t find them overly exciting!). He also LOVED the new carousel at the zoo. In the past he has been a little apprehensive of carousels--kind of a love/hate relationship with them. But this time he was squealing with excitement and waving to people--it was very sweet!

Sunday was another gorgeous day, so we headed to Vacaville to go to the Nut Tree. Point of interest: Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom stopped there for dinner on their wedding night, on their way up to Tahoe for their honeymoon. And shortly thereafter, Grandpa Tom got a speeding ticket. Grandpa Tom…speeding?! I can’t imagine… ;-)

Anyway, the Nut Tree eventually went out of business but reopened a year or two ago with new stores, restaurants, and an amusement park. The amusement park part has been revamped and is now smaller and free of charge, so we took advantage of that as a fun way for Theo to spend a day outside in the beautiful weather. He had a blast! They had a section of about nine little vehicles (fire trucks, police cars, speed boat, motorcycle, etc.) for kids to play in, which he loved because he loves all things that go “vroom” these days. (SUCH a boy!) They also have a carousel, which again was a big hit with him, and a small train you can ride. We didn’t ride the train, but he did love the carousel and some of the other things to play on--bouncy wooden “ponies,” a life-size chess set, a teeter-totter, etc. After a lunch and an hour or two of play, Theo was one tired toddler and slept all the way home. We also found a Marshall’s with a treasure trove of new books, so we bought about 12 new books for Theo’s library.

I always wanted a kid who would love to read, and I surely got one. Theo is a book fanatic! On any given day, between Chris and I, we read him probably 40 books. And so, we are getting quite tired of reading the same books over and over, so these 12 new books are a welcome addition to the repertoire. (If I have to read Wheels on the Bus again, I might just throw myself under the wheels of the bus.)

Last but not least, new words! Theo seemed to acquire a ton of them this week, but the ones I recall off the top of my head are “bubble” (announced at the Little Gym during his class on Monday--the bubbles are one of his favorite parts), “butter,” “another one,” and “earth.” He is repeating everything, so I probably need to clean up my act. ;-)

Oh, and one more thing! Chris was the primary photographer this week, so most of the lovely pictures this week are his work. I chased around Theo and handed the camera off to him over the weekend, so he gets kudos for almost every good shot in there this week.