1. Picking Henry up from school Wednesday. I walk in, excited to see him, to see the way he breaks into a smile and a run when he sees me. Instead he scowls and walks right past my open arms. "I want Grandma to pick me up," he grumbles.
"But I'm here!" I say.
"I don't want you," he says.
I smile and tell him he is welcome to stay at school until Friday, when Grandma will come pick him up.
2. Walking to the car after picking Henry up from school. We're headed down the street, and Henry sees a person walking toward us.
"Is that Daddy?" he asks.
"No," I say firmly.
"Yes it is! It's Daddy! That is Daddy!" says Henry. "Daddy! DADDY!"
"Ha, ha! You crazy nut!" I say, lightly, as the black woman Henry was referring to scowls at us. The child is clearly messing with my head.
3. Thursday afternoon, trying to clean the house. After an hour spent folding two loads of laundry, changing a dirty diaper, vacuuming, and cleaning the kitchen, I tell Henry to pick up the game pieces to Busytown.
"Aaaagh," he says. "Why do I have to do all the jobs around here?"
That's funny.
ReplyDelete"It IS Daddy"
He's just testing your mental welds with some high level ideas.
Start feeding him empty plates at dinner.
"And how is your pizza? finish it all and you get ICE CREAM!"
Then show him an empty bowl that you hold out of reach as if he would grab for it and the ice cream it contains.
p.s. No matter how much he "eats" make sure he never finished that plate.
"You didn't eat your crusts! NO ICE CREAM FOR YOU"