L made a new friend at playgroup this morning - even before we got in the door. One of the children, who shall be known as “P,” decided that he wanted to give Liam a hug. However, P’s hugging quickly turned into a headlock and L, who is a pretty laid back kid when it comes to that stuff, looked up at me with a pained face and made a little noise I’ve not heard before.
I leaned down and asked P if he could hug gently or pat L on the back. L wasn’t hurt, just freaked out. But P’s mom finally pried him off of L and started saying, “no, no, no, he’s little, don’t do that.”
This got the attention of the moderator, who came over and suggested we try to get them to give each other five. Yeah, no. P wasn’t having any of that. He is a lover and he wanted to HUG, man. I stayed calm and decided that I’d just try to get him to be gentle, but his mom wouldn’t even let him try again. She was all over the No Bandwagon. I felt terrible for the kid.
I am sure that he IS a terror, but there were only four kids at playgroup, so there was plenty of room for him to run around and be crazy. I just felt like she was always telling him how to do something the “right” way.
“No, no, P. You put it HERE. Don’t put it THERE.”
I don’t see what the big deal is if he wants to put the blocks on the floor instead of on the table - but then again, my kid runs around with a drill in his mouth. P just wanted to play and it was quite obvious that he was well into rebellion mode with his mother. (I should know. I’m a master.)
No wonder she has no control over him…she doesn’t give him any.
Anyway, he finally got calmed down and managed to sit by Liam and me and sing and play with some balls and a drum (”No, use BOTH drumsticks, P.”) for probably 10 minutes or so. The best part was when I told him that it was fine to play the drum with his hands and use the drumstick on the floor. *smirk*
He was thrilled.
Following playgroup, we met Jen and Jules at the mall for a spontaneous outing, where we experienced three firsts.
- L rode the train - in the locomotive - and thought he was the hippest conductor ever.
- We ordered off of the kid’s menu. Though Jules ended up eating most of L’s grilled cheese and he ate at least half of her mac and cheese, it all worked out in the end. Oh, and he used a cup with a straw…and SOAKED himself.
- L rode the carosel. He totally thought it was the coolest - until the horses started moving. He was strapped to the horse, but he didn’t want to be on it, so he was trying to hold on to me while the horse was going up and down and I couldn’t get him off of it because he was belted on. So, viewers, you see a crying toddler, using one hand to say “no more” and the other to grab on to Mama while she squats and stands on tiptoe to keep up with the horse while trying to unhook the safety belt. Quite a sight. It’ll be a while before we try that one again.
Finally, Grammy and L’s surrogate Grandma Judy were in town for a couple of days so they stopped by around 4. I finally had to wake L up at 4.30, after three hours, so that they could see him for 30 minutes.
THEN, Grandma Jeanne came to play so that Aaron and I could go out for our Xmas dinner. Grandma and L had a good time - right up to the point where she had just changed his diaper and he stood up and pooped. Aaron and I, however, had a GREAT time.
There’s nothing like a good, adult conversation and a medium-rare filet after a day full of kids.
MMMMMMM…beeeeeef.
