Day 825 - "Only Mommy..."

If I'm being completely honest, the last couple of months have been really hard. It's true that part of that is due to quarantines and pandemics but there's also another reason. That reason is my relationship with Ellie. While we have always been close, I've begun to see little cracks there over the past couple of months. For some reason, me wanting to do the simplest things with her sets her off.

Hey everyone, time to run away from the upset child.

On one occasion, it will be me wanting to do something as simple as read her a story in the middle of the afternoon. It doesn't matter how nicely I ask or how I go about it, the end result is her screaming at me (literally), "Only Mommy is allowed to read books to me!" With that, she'll either sprint to her bedroom and slam the door or she will lay down in the floor, kicking and screaming.

Ellie also seemingly has an issue with me wanting to play with her. It hasn't really mattered what the activity is. Lego, puzzles, board games, or any other of a variety of toys and activities have fostered no success. When I ask her why she doesn't want to play with me, her response is heartbreaking in its message. That message? "I love my mommy and only want to play with her, not you." 

I know it's important for me to keep in mind that those words are coming directly from the mouth of a three-year-old and it's likely that she doesn't know what she is saying. However, that doesn't help me feel any better. In fact, a person can only hear something like that so many times before it starts to break them and I've definitely been getting close to reaching that point. Lucky for me, Bethany has begun to hear enough of Ellie's somewhat disparaging and is now defending me to our daughter.

It started out simply enough with Bethany gently reminding Ellie that her words can be hurtful and has now morphed into her emphatically declaring that she doesn't want to hear Ellie speak to me that way. Still though, there was little impact until Wednesday night.

After we put Ellie to bed for the night, I walked downstairs to find Ellie's favorite stuffed animals, Moana and Bunny, sitting on the couch in our living room. While I initially didn't want to react since Ellie had just finished being mean to me, ultimately my soft heart won out. Taking both animals into my arms, I headed back upstairs and gently knocked on Ellie's door before heading in. 

Once inside, we had a gentle conversation about how her words really hurt me and I'm tired of it. I also let her know that I love her very much and when I ask to do things with her, it's because I legitimately want to spend time with her. To my surprise, my words seemed to resonate with Ellie on this occasion as she immediately listed off all of the activities she wanted to do with me the following day. After assuring her that we would do everything she listed, I gave her a hug and kiss and left her room. 

Honestly, I didn't really think Ellie would follow through with her plans for the next day. Little did I know that she had every intention of keeping her word. The next morning, Ellie wandered into our bedroom around 5:45. Instead of making a beeline for Bethany as she normally would, Ellie instead clambered up onto my chest and shook me awake. Then she told me the following words: "Hey, it's time for you to read Sheep Dog and Sheep Sheep to me." From there on, we essentially spent every second of the day together until Bethany got off work.

Further more, Ellie must have figured out that she actually enjoys hanging out with me because she has been much more apt to do so since that day. There's still the occasion demand of "I want Mommy to do it," but overall things are much better. There's certainly less yelling, screaming, and crying. Oh, and Ellie's maintaining better control of her emotions as well! #DaddyWrite

Day 819 - So. Very. Wet.

When a person is young, it's surprising how the simplest things can seem extremely difficult.

A good example would be Ellie's recent growth at coloring. In the past, whenever someone would set a picture in front of her to color, Ellie's reaction would be to scribble away with nary a thought of making things look nice. The older she's gotten though, the more pride she takes in her art. Nowadays, Ellie's pictures really are special. She always stays within the lines and even will change colors to suit the picture.

An Ellie original

Even though Ellie's coloring is a good example of the topic at hand, it's not the first one that comes to mind. The first one actually revolves around Ethan and one of the world's simplest tasks: getting a drink of water.

Most of the time, Ethan can drink water like a champ. It doesn't matter if it's from his special cup or a water bottle. He's even been known to drink a tiny amount of water from a normal cup with no problems. However, there are certain receptacles that a one-year-old should never try to drink from. Namely, their mommy's work cup.  However, since that cup remains in our bedroom/Bethany's home office at all times, there's no reason for that to be a legitimate concern, right? Wrong!

Flashback to Wednesday around the 5:00 hour. Bethany had just gotten off work and we were working together to get supper on the table. I was outside grilling some extremely pitiful hamburgers while Bethany prepared some asparagus and tater tots as a side. I'm serious about the hamburgers being pitiful. While they tasted fine, there was literally no binding them together so it was all I could do to keep them in halfway decent shape as I grilled.

TATER TOTS!!!

In between flipping the burgers, I wandered inside to see how things were going for Bethany. Very quickly though, I noticed that Ethan was nowhere to be found. If it were Ellie, I wouldn't be concerned but Ethan has a penchant for mischief. Out of curiosity, I asked Bethany where he was. Her humorous response was something along the lines of, "Wait, we have two kids?". It was then that Ethan made his appearance at the top of the stairs. 

The first thing I noticed is that he was proudly clutching Bethany's metal water cup. Not thinking much about it, I proceeded to ask Bethany if her cup was empty or not. When she responded that it did indeed have water left in it, I knew we might be in trouble. As if it was completely intentional, Ethan chose that moment to set the cup down and let us all see the result of his thirst.

Wet, wet, wet.

For starters, a 20 oz water cup is a bit large for a toddler. That's especially true when it's more than half full. In his quest for water, Ethan had soaked his shirt, his pants, and the carpet in the bedroom. In fact, it was so bad that he required a full wardrobe change before dinner. Bethany also had to spend several minutes sopping up water from our bedroom floor with an old towel before returning to the kitchen.

I'd like to say Ethan learned his lesson about drinking from a cup that is too large for him. However, that's just not true. In fact, less than ten minutes later, he had the cup in his possession once again. The lone saving grace being that it was empty on that occasion. 

On second thought, that was probably just a saving grace for Bethany and me. For Ethan, I'm sure he was dismayed to find that his thirst could not be quenched on that occasion. Poor little guy. Life's just so very hard for him sometimes. #DaddyWrite

Day 811 - Sounding Off About a Sound Machine

Today, for the first time ever (I think), I actually referred to Ethan as a toddler. Before today, I've considered him to still be a baby. On occasion, I've referred to him as "the boy" or "Bethany's son" but both of those names only forestalled the inevitable. My son is a toddler. 

Unfortunately, Ethan officially being a toddler (in my mind) comes with a price. As anyone who has ever interacted with a toddler knows, they are a lot of work. Their rampant curiosity is the cause of most of that. It really doesn't matter how often you say "Don't do that," "No," or "Ethan, stop!" because ultimately he's going to do exactly what he wants to do. Lately, as I've alluded to, Ethan's number one desire in life is to get into mischief.

For one thing, Ethan has developed a fascination with any and all electronic devices. If I had to pick his favorite at the current moment, it would be his sound machine. As we give him a decent amount of free reign to explore the house, it's totally within reason to expect he would spend some in his bedroom. Although, as his bedroom is less nursery and more guest bedroom with a crib in it, there's really not much of interest in there for a toddler. That is, until he discovered the sound machine.

Oddly enough, that very sound machine has sat on the ground next to his laundry basket for close to 15 months. Until recently though, Ethan really hasn't given it much thought. However, with his newfound penchant for exploration, it was only a matter of time until he really began paying attention to it. 

It started simply enough with Ethan taking note of us turning the sound machine on prior to his naps followed by us shutting it off after his naps. Not only did we shut it off but we also unplugged it since the unit is notoriously glitchy. Also I should note that after the house fire episode of This is Us, we are a little leery of glitchy devices. After all, Jack would still be alive if not for that stupid Crock-Pot! 

Don't take the Crock-Pot, Jack!!!

I told you not to take the Crock-Pot, Jack!!!

Anyway, whenever Ethan wanders into his room now, he makes a beeline straight for the sound machine. If Bethany and/or I left it running, then Ethan now takes it upon himself to shut the sound machine off himself and unplug it for good measure. Hardly anything to worry about if I do say so myself. However, it's another action that we find more concerning as Ethan has also taken it upon himself to (try to) plug in his sound machine at random times during the day.

Obviously, I can't keep an eye on Ethan every single moment of every day and like allowing him to have a little bit of freedom. However, when I hear the sound machine turn on out of nowhere, I know there is immediate cause for concern. That's especially true when one looks at the telltale marks all over our wall from where Ethan tried in vain to plug in the sound machine and instead just scratched up the wall. 

While he's been safe up to this point, Bethany and I wouldn't be doing our job as parents if we allowed a potentially unsafe scenario to continue playing out. As a result, we just moved the sound machine on top of a bookshelf next to the full-size bed in Ethan's room. The only downside is that Ethan still has easy access to the unit. All he has to do is crawl onto the bed and walk across it to the bookshelf. On a positive note though, all he can do is turn it on now since the plug is obscured from his sight. 

On the flip side, it will be interesting to see how long it takes Ethan to topple the bookshelf in an attempt to find the plug. The kid is so stinking smart that I give it about a week. Two tops. Then we'll have a fun little mess to clean up. #DaddyWrite