In the groove...??

Hubby: I think I babysit him more [than you]

Me: I don't think you can call it "babysitting" when it's your own kid

Hubby: …….

Now that I'm back at work, we've been slowly settling into a routine, a groove, you might say, with maybe a few bumps in it.

We took Evan to the aquarium. He did fairly well, except for one beginning of a tantrum when he planted himself down on the ground because he wasn't getting his way. Ugh!! I told my sister about this. She said maybe he has seen other kids do it. I said, no, he's THAT kind of kid, that other kids copy. I hope he outgrows this soon. If he's going to throw fits like that, we can't take him anywhere. Anyway, we almost just left, but I wanted to see the arctic fox puppies (they were so cute!). I was almost ready to stomp MY feet. Fortunately, after a while, things turned around and he was more pleasant and had fun. He loves playing with water. They had these sculptures of sea creatures with buttons to push and squirt water. He was squirting water all over his face, not to mention other unsuspecting kids.

The other day, we went to a fairly nice restaurant for dinner since we got a free child's meal certificate from Evan's tumbling class (thank you, Tumble-N-Kids!!). We were seated next to a huge party. Looked like just a big family of around 25-30 people. Boy, were they noisy! But I didn't really mind, because it meant if Evan decided to throw a fit, no one would really hear. And if I had to yell at him, no one would really notice. Thankfully, no fit was thrown and not much yelling was necessary, although yelling from the next table was quite enough. The waiter and manager felt so bad that they let us keep the free meal certificate to reuse and a $10 off certificate. 

Potty training is not going all that well these days. No progress whatsoever. Accidents almost daily (some days multiple accidents). On Monday, the teacher told us that, not once, but twice, he went up to the same little girl and smacked her in the back of the head! Not very hard (so they didn't write up an "incident report" geez…), but still made her cry. So I've been telling him that hitting is not nice and not allowed. The next day, when he didn't think anybody was watching, he hit a little boy in the back of the head! The other boy retaliated by pushing him (I think). Evan was going to push back but saw that the teacher was watching. The teacher said if that kind of behavior wasn't not allowed, it would be funny. So I'm guessing it's kind of a playful hitting. He just casually walks up to the kid and bonks him in the back of the head. Ugh!! I don't know what to do. I hope it's just a phase and he doesn't grow up to be a bully. That would be my biggest fear. The kid's built like a bulldozer, and stubborn to boot. I looked up the definition of "strong-willed." 

Strong-willed: obstinate, stubborn, unregenerate, tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield.

Umm… yea, we have one of those on our hands. It makes for good leadership material. Right? Right? That or a delinquent... We shall keep a close eye on him. Don't get me wrong. He has good qualities too, like an endearing side. For example, he likes to flirt with all the pretty ladies at the vet office. When my mom wasn't feeling well, he went up to her and gave her extra "sho-sho's" (hugs). He has come up with this big-eye scary face that makes everybody laugh. I understand boys don't stay cute like this for long, so we will try to enjoy it while we can.

Evan doing his patented "big-eye scary face"

Dueling "big-eye scary faces"