Diary of a great evening

I don't know what it was tonight, the three hour nap that Ant took this afternoon, the three combined hours of naps from yesterday (1 hour in the car and then another 2 in the late afternoon, poor guy was zapped), but we had an absolutely fabulous evening.

When I arrived home from work, Ant was running up to me, saying "AAAAAAAH!", sometimes waiting for me to return fire, sometimes not, then doing a lap around the first floor. This lasted for probably about fifteen minutes, and Nana and Papa were included in the fun too.

After they left, we played with the buckles on the booster seat, climbed up and down on "Nana's chair", played with the buckles some more, moved Nana's chair over to the vacuum sealer and played with that and some coins (vacuum sealer was off, but so much fun to open, close and put things into).

Next was supper time - I asked if he wanted tuna or meatballs, and he replied emphatically, "Meatbawws!". Always nice to have direction for meals! I prepared the TJ's meatballs to a little bit of fussing, I can never cook anything quickly enough, but it settled down pretty quickly once the "meatbawws and sauce" were provided. He asked to sit at the table instead of having the booster seat tray on, and was actually a lot less messy than normal with this meal. Ate three whole meatballs, plus dipped half a slice of toast in the leftover sauce and ate that too.

After we were done eating, more playing with the booster seat, including a totally unprompted rendition of "five little monkeys jumping on the bed", complete with finger wagging "NO mowah mon-keys jumpin' on da bed!"

Our next activity was bringing in the packages the UPS man dropped off, and opening said packages. Ant's favorite was the new car seat, which he proceeded to have me put next to the stairs, followed by more playing with buckles, getting in an out of the seat, and more singing. We talked about how this new carseat was for Papa's car, because we already have one in Antony's car and in Mommy's car.

The latter led to asking to "SEE Mommy's CAH!" - which I said we couldn't do because I had ridden my bike home. So he wanted to "see mommy's bike!". Down to the basement we went. And "rode" the bike around the garage, down the driveway, down to the corner and back again. By riding what I really mean is Ant was sitting on the seat and I was pushing the bike.

Upon our return I decided it was bedtime, and actually managed to get Ant upstairs with a minimum of fuss. We had a grand time taking of his socks, and then mine. Apparently I am not allowed to wear socks if he's not! Around then Daddy arrived home, and we had to "go downsairs, see DAddy!". Which entailed more running around in circles. Very exciting.

Preparing for bed was also a very pleasant experience - takes a while these days, but much fun was had by all. Including a phone call to Nana and Papa, where Antony had a five minute phone conversation with them! He was often just repeating what they were saying, but he did say "Hewwo Nana" or "Hewwo Papa" all by himself, as well as answering their questions in the affirmative when appropriate. Papa asked if the new carseat had come, and Ant said "Yaaaah". Papa then queried, "who's car is the car seat going in?", and Ant answered, "Papa's cah!". He asked "Nana doin?" when she got on the phone, she told him she was making supper, and a minute or two further on in the conversation, he said "Nana makin' suppah". He's listened on the phone before, but never come at all close to having an actual conversation like he did tonight.

We then played the monster spray game (I pretend to be a monster, giving very friendly growls from time to time), and he makes a "tsch tsch tsch" noise while pretend spraying me, at which point I run away because the monster spray is very effective. (This game was originated by his ten month older cousin).

After that came "miwk and sorie" time, we read three or four books, had a very nice teethbrushing where he actually made a pretty good effort all on his own, after asking Daddy to come up. A few more "sories" with Daddy, and off to bed he went with minimal complaints.

All in all, an amazingly fun evening!

One tantrum, two tantra?

The last couple of nights, I have had the pleasure of witnessing Ant's first two real tantrums.

#1 started at dinner time. He wanted ketchup for dinner. I started off with a small bit on the tray, then managed to get him to eat some of my mac-n-cheese (which is a good way of disguising broccoli). After he was done with the mnc, he asked for "mowah ketchup!". I gave him a little in a bowl. That was okay. What was not okay was when he asked for more again and I told him there was still some left and he had to finish that first. So so so not okay. Much screaming, screwing up of face, demanding of "MOWAH MOWAH MOWAH" ensued. I tried to get him to calm down by telling him to look at me which usually works. Yeah - not so much. I tried giving him little bits of ketchup on a spoon to show him that yes there really was some left in the bowl. That just seemed to make him madder. I said he couldn't have more until the bowl was empty, so he turned it upside down, I assume to try and get what was in there out so he could have more. Sneaky little guy! At this point it became clear that supper was going nowhere fast, so I cleaned him up (still screaming) and carried him upstairs (still screaming) to change his diaper and put him in his pjs. Finally, after I deposited him on the changing table and provided "Dogald", he regained his composure. Definitely the first time he had been so hard to distract from his desire.

#2 happened the very next day. I figured one of the reasons for the previous day's performance was that he was overly hungry as dinner didn't start until 6 (normally he eats at 5:30). So when we got home from daycare I took him out of the car and upstairs, to start preparing supper. He desperately wanted to stay in the car, and started crying even as we walked into the basement. Once we got upstairs and I put him down, he immediately went for the doorknob, yelling in fine tantrum fashion "go downsairs! go downsairs! go downsairs!". Pulled off the safety knob with no problem and threw the two halves on the floor. With intent. Stomping feet, the whole nine yards. At this point I so couldn't give in to him! So we went upstairs to get Dogald again. Not quite as effective this time, but I brougt him back down to the first floor and just held him on "Papa's chair" for a while. He eventually calmed down - every minute or two he would start crying again and say "go downsairs" a few times, until he gave in to me and let himself be interested in one of the other options I was offering (his photo album of relatives). Whew!

I have to say, after a certain point I had a hard time not laughing. Poor kid.