Thursday, July 08, 2004
It's going alright. He got in trouble three times on Wednesday and once yesterday for making child-noise, and he's really trying to get a handle on it. At times it just comes out of him and he can't help it. I just really want him to TRY to control it. Mistakes are understandable, but it's the look-me-in-the-eye-and-do-it-purposefully-daring-me-to-do-something-about-it that isn't okay at all. Not even a little bit. I made a chart to put on the refridgerator and when it's all filled up (seven boxes for no-hollering and seven boxes for no-child-noise) with stickers, he's going to have a BIG SURPRISE. What the surprise will be I am not yet sure. I asked him what he wished the surprise will be and he said a book about space with planets and stars. DEAR LITTLE BOY. THe great thing is that I can already see his whole attitude changing, getting less defiant and more happy and less stressed and just more relaxed. Anyway, along we go. Both nights he's gotten his sticker for bedtime.
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Monday, July 05, 2004
It ends tomorrow. There are two things that stop this from being a peaceful and harmonious household. One is child-noise, a noise Benny has invented that sends my nerves from 0 to shot in three repetitions. It's a noise connected with the way he used to burrow and squeeze my boobs and say THE NURSIES THE NURSIES after he had weaned and after he had been told 20,000 times that was not okay to do. It's a noise he has now attributed to an imaginary friend called "the child" who makes this noise... all day. It's a noise I have tried for ONE FULL YEAR now to get him to quit, by saying please don't make that noise Benny, too loud Benny, please stop Benny, and now it has become this CHALLENGE where he will look right at me as I am telling him NOT TO MAKE CHILD-NOISE and he makes it, and it sends me into a blind rage immediately. Is it ridiculous to wage a war over a silly noise? NO. Because it's him vs me, whatever the battlefield, however apparently trivial.
The other thing that ends tomorrow is his practice of, when the lights are turned out and he's had his story and drink and potty and hug and kiss and whatnot, he calls us up (to the third floor) at LEAST three times a night, hollering, "MOMMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" or "DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!" and when we get all the way up there his reason is to see if I am sleeping, or to tell me that his glow in the dark planets are glowing or to have another drink (when he has paper cups on the sink for that) or to go potty again (when he knows jolly well how to go potty for himself) or WHATEVER, he is driving us both insane because for up to TWO HOURS after he is put to bed, it is MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY and DADDY DADDY DADDY and because we've decided we will always answer when he calls, because what if he's puking or having a nightmare or really needs something, WE GO MARCHING UP THERE LIKE FOOLS TO GET TOLD THAT "OH, I APPEARED!" OR WHATEVER FOOL THING IT IS... well this stops tomorrow.
How am I going to stop these things? Stay tuned. We have such a loveable, adorable, polite, mannered, angelic, brilliant, beautiful child -- WHY should we be angry at him over these things which CAN BE FIXED??? Why should we fight on month after month pulling and tugging and fussing and complaining and arguing about it -- FORGET IT. IT ENDS.
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The other thing that ends tomorrow is his practice of, when the lights are turned out and he's had his story and drink and potty and hug and kiss and whatnot, he calls us up (to the third floor) at LEAST three times a night, hollering, "MOMMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" or "DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!" and when we get all the way up there his reason is to see if I am sleeping, or to tell me that his glow in the dark planets are glowing or to have another drink (when he has paper cups on the sink for that) or to go potty again (when he knows jolly well how to go potty for himself) or WHATEVER, he is driving us both insane because for up to TWO HOURS after he is put to bed, it is MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY and DADDY DADDY DADDY and because we've decided we will always answer when he calls, because what if he's puking or having a nightmare or really needs something, WE GO MARCHING UP THERE LIKE FOOLS TO GET TOLD THAT "OH, I APPEARED!" OR WHATEVER FOOL THING IT IS... well this stops tomorrow.
How am I going to stop these things? Stay tuned. We have such a loveable, adorable, polite, mannered, angelic, brilliant, beautiful child -- WHY should we be angry at him over these things which CAN BE FIXED??? Why should we fight on month after month pulling and tugging and fussing and complaining and arguing about it -- FORGET IT. IT ENDS.
FIREWORKS!
We wanted to take Benny to the fireworks this year because we knew he would enjoy them in the extreme. But how to execute this fine plan? Here in Hampton Roads there are multiple little fireworks displays... Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Norfolk, there are some in various parks and whatnot... it's ridiculous! So. The plan was that we would go downtown to Norfolk's fireworks, which were being set off as part of a fourth of July picnic thingy in Town Point Park on the waterfront. Dan thought we could get good access if we parked in this sort of industrial part on the water, or if we got to the top of a parking garage. Sadie went to bed early so we had to get her back up and put her in the car seat. I *almost* stayed home so she wouldn't have to be disturbed but I couldn't miss it -- Benny was jumping out of his skin with excitement and I knew his reaction was going to be so rich. He had been playing with this applet all day. So I pried her out of bed and after a few moments of irritation she settled down with her giraffe and was okay.
So when we got downtown there were a million zillion people and we couldn't find a single legal parking spot. One problem was that we didn't know where exactly the fireworks were going to be... directly next to the park, or where the river gets wider, or what? We saw people looking out over the back end of the USS Wisconsin, which is parked next to the Nauticus museum there... so we parked illegally behind a row of parked cars and set up. We flipped the rear seat of the Odyssey back so it was like a tailgate couch and WOW WAS THAT AN EXCELLENT SET UP! As it turned out the fireworks WERE in the wider part of the river, directly behind the battleship, so we saw the entire show perfectly, even sort of framed on the bottom by this giant ship. We couldn't possibly have had better seats -- so comfortable on the back of the van with that awesome flippable seat!
BENNY WENT INSANE!!! There were lots of people gathered around -- by the time the show actually started, the whole street was full of illegally parked cars and people had gotten out and gone over to this bench area right across from the ship. Benny was shouting, "FIREWORK!!!!!! A FIREWORK!!!!! THERE'S ANOTHER ONE RIGHT THERE!!!! LOOK!!!!" and he was hollering to people in cars and around him directing them where to look and explaining what was going on, "WE ARE SEEING SOME FIREWORKS" he yelled to a person in a car trying to get down the street. Hehehe. He loved it all. He was so excited he didn't get to bed until M I D N I G H T because when we got home we watched the Boston display on TV and he also played with his applet endlessly, jumping up out of his computer chair and rushing in to call to us, "DADDY I FIREWORKED FOR YOU! COME AND SEE!" At bedtime he said, "But I just need to make some more fireworks right here, Mom." It was definitely a fantastic experience for him -- made a big impression. And Sadie, the ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS LITTLE DARLING CHILD, watched the whole thing from the tailgate. Biggest, roundest, most interested eyes I have ever seen. She didn't cry or even get upset -- during the finale I did put my hands over her ears because it was really loud. She watched with deep interest -- like she wanted to turn her head to rest her head on my shoulder, but she couldn't pry her eyes off the fireworks. Like Baby Einstein live, only with earsplitting explosions instead of Mozart. Hehehe.
Anyway, that was our holiday. It was great.
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We wanted to take Benny to the fireworks this year because we knew he would enjoy them in the extreme. But how to execute this fine plan? Here in Hampton Roads there are multiple little fireworks displays... Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Norfolk, there are some in various parks and whatnot... it's ridiculous! So. The plan was that we would go downtown to Norfolk's fireworks, which were being set off as part of a fourth of July picnic thingy in Town Point Park on the waterfront. Dan thought we could get good access if we parked in this sort of industrial part on the water, or if we got to the top of a parking garage. Sadie went to bed early so we had to get her back up and put her in the car seat. I *almost* stayed home so she wouldn't have to be disturbed but I couldn't miss it -- Benny was jumping out of his skin with excitement and I knew his reaction was going to be so rich. He had been playing with this applet all day. So I pried her out of bed and after a few moments of irritation she settled down with her giraffe and was okay.
So when we got downtown there were a million zillion people and we couldn't find a single legal parking spot. One problem was that we didn't know where exactly the fireworks were going to be... directly next to the park, or where the river gets wider, or what? We saw people looking out over the back end of the USS Wisconsin, which is parked next to the Nauticus museum there... so we parked illegally behind a row of parked cars and set up. We flipped the rear seat of the Odyssey back so it was like a tailgate couch and WOW WAS THAT AN EXCELLENT SET UP! As it turned out the fireworks WERE in the wider part of the river, directly behind the battleship, so we saw the entire show perfectly, even sort of framed on the bottom by this giant ship. We couldn't possibly have had better seats -- so comfortable on the back of the van with that awesome flippable seat!
BENNY WENT INSANE!!! There were lots of people gathered around -- by the time the show actually started, the whole street was full of illegally parked cars and people had gotten out and gone over to this bench area right across from the ship. Benny was shouting, "FIREWORK!!!!!! A FIREWORK!!!!! THERE'S ANOTHER ONE RIGHT THERE!!!! LOOK!!!!" and he was hollering to people in cars and around him directing them where to look and explaining what was going on, "WE ARE SEEING SOME FIREWORKS" he yelled to a person in a car trying to get down the street. Hehehe. He loved it all. He was so excited he didn't get to bed until M I D N I G H T because when we got home we watched the Boston display on TV and he also played with his applet endlessly, jumping up out of his computer chair and rushing in to call to us, "DADDY I FIREWORKED FOR YOU! COME AND SEE!" At bedtime he said, "But I just need to make some more fireworks right here, Mom." It was definitely a fantastic experience for him -- made a big impression. And Sadie, the ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS LITTLE DARLING CHILD, watched the whole thing from the tailgate. Biggest, roundest, most interested eyes I have ever seen. She didn't cry or even get upset -- during the finale I did put my hands over her ears because it was really loud. She watched with deep interest -- like she wanted to turn her head to rest her head on my shoulder, but she couldn't pry her eyes off the fireworks. Like Baby Einstein live, only with earsplitting explosions instead of Mozart. Hehehe.
Anyway, that was our holiday. It was great.
