Friday, November 17, 2006

Just a phase - I hope

I keep telling myself it’s just a phase, but I don’t remember Lady Bug going through it like this. I feel that I am number one on Monkey Boy’s hate list. He gives me the least affection of anyone in the family.

Last night I was going to baby sit them while the parents went to the Rocket’s game. I walked in, sat down and we made direct eye contact, and smiled. I don’t know, but perhaps it’s like a dog - don’t do that. He immediately began crying and saying "no, no, no." I could tell it was going to be a loooooong evening.

He is also allowed to watch the cartoon movies over and over and over. The parents deny themselves TV time so that he is occupied with the movies. Monkey Boy comes by this honestly however. His father can watch movies over and over and over. If it’s not a sports program, you guessed it. It is some stupid, old movie.

Instead of starting the movie over when it ended, I went through every add in that was on the DVD. I was really trying to bore him silly. I was not going to miss "Ugly Betty," "Gray’s Anatomy," and "ER" for mercy’s sake!

They both trooped off to the bathroom after I switched on the regular TV. He decided to brush his teeth. This was going to be a chore that seemed like it would fill the rest of the evening. When I convinced him to leave the bathroom, the tooth brush had to come with him. Hey, I’m a Grandma. I choose my battles. This was not to be the one.

Several meltdowns occurred. I gave up trying to keep track of them. The crying was really out of hand, but the one that was the funniest had to do with the cats. For some reason, he has developed a fear of the cats. Perhaps it’s because he has been allowed to fine tune his ability to knock the wowie out of things with anything that resembles a bat. Gotta have the jock, you know. He was about to beat one cat senseless with a clothes brush until I stopped him. When she turned around, he was getting away. He was afraid of her.

He had just finished up a snack when he confronted the other cat in the breakfast room. He came flying back into the den, crying, of course. Lady Bug was going to get him to face his fears (I guess - who knows what runs through the brain of the five year old big sister). At that moment, the cats got into a yowling scuffle. Both kids were scared out of their minds.

They came flying back to me, and for the first time in months, Monkey Boy wanted to be in my lap. He clung to me. The parents walked in at that moment. SIL was so touched that Monkey was loving on Grandma. I assured him is was simply a fluke, and things would be back to normal today!

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