Monday, October 09, 2006
Advanced for His Age
The Wife and I were both pretty smart growing up. (Whether that holds true today is certainly up for debate.) You could say that we were “advanced” for our ages. And I’m proud to say that Luke is too. Luke is almost 20 months old, but he’s already entering the Terrible Twos!
This weekend, The Wife took off with her Mommie group to head up to my family’s cabin in WI. (I think I’ve been calling it the Ponderosa. I should look that up. I’m WAY too forgetful with these nicknames.) Basically, they went up there to drink and get the hell away from their kids. And I really can’t say that I blame any of them. Especially The Wife, who was kind enough to take Luke out of town (and away from me) all last weekend. And to be honest, I was sort of looking forward to spending some time with Luke. You know, some quality male bonding time.
Saturday started out fine. Luke is really getting into his trucks. He’s also a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine. We have Comcast cable and they have Thomas on InDemand. So basically, Thomas is available whenever we want it. And Luke wants it a lot. I’d say that about once an hour, he looks at me and says, “Choo Choo show?” What’s funny is that he’s started watching Sesame Street, which he naturally calls “Choo Choo Street.”
Anyway, we had a lot of fun on Saturday, but on Sunday he must have gotten a little tired of this whole no-Mommy thing. He was NOT in a good mood at all. Luke likes going for rides in my truck, so figured I’d head to Home Depot with him. All I needed was a screw. One measly little screw. (Get your mind out of the gutter.) So I grabbed Luke, put him in the truck and headed to Home Depot. We got there and I went to get him out. He told me to close the door. He didn’t want to get out. Now, a smart man would have just left him in the car, ran in, gotten the screw, and been back out in about 30 seconds. But since I didn’t want to get arrested for leaving a child in the car, I figured I’d take Luke inside with me. BIG mistake.
Luke screamed the WHOLE time I was in Home Depot. He wriggled and fussed and refused to be held. So I’d put him down. And he’d take off screaming, running in random directions. This continued for about 10 minutes. At one point, he’d thrown himself face first on the floor and was wriggling backwards down an aisle, screaming the whole time.
And of course, when I picked him up to head home, he was miserable. He didn’t want me to hold him, didn’t want to get in the car, didn’t want anything until I said the magic words “ice cream.” You know, perhaps this was just an elaborate ploy to get ice cream out of me. If so, it worked.
Luke continued to be a pill all Sunday morning, so I was quite relieved when noon came around and I got to put him down for a nap. I put him in his crib and sat down to watch the Bears game. I noticed that Luke kept talking to himself. This isn’t a rare occurrence. He usually talks himself to sleep. Only this time, he never stopped talking. After an hour, I heard him calling me. I waited a little longer until he basically started crying. Apparently, this nap wasn’t going to take.
So I got Luke down from his crib and let him play with his trucks. Except he wanted me to play with him. I tried to get him to watch football, but it wasn’t working. He just wanted to watch Choo Choo Street. After about an hour of driving me nuts, The Wife finally came home from her weekend away to put an end to my misery. You know, this might be the first time I’ve ever said that the arrival of The Wife put an end to my misery. But since we’re going to be having more kids and Luke’s not even CLOSE to being done with his Terrible Twos, I’m sure it won’t be the last.
This weekend, The Wife took off with her Mommie group to head up to my family’s cabin in WI. (I think I’ve been calling it the Ponderosa. I should look that up. I’m WAY too forgetful with these nicknames.) Basically, they went up there to drink and get the hell away from their kids. And I really can’t say that I blame any of them. Especially The Wife, who was kind enough to take Luke out of town (and away from me) all last weekend. And to be honest, I was sort of looking forward to spending some time with Luke. You know, some quality male bonding time.
Saturday started out fine. Luke is really getting into his trucks. He’s also a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine. We have Comcast cable and they have Thomas on InDemand. So basically, Thomas is available whenever we want it. And Luke wants it a lot. I’d say that about once an hour, he looks at me and says, “Choo Choo show?” What’s funny is that he’s started watching Sesame Street, which he naturally calls “Choo Choo Street.”
Anyway, we had a lot of fun on Saturday, but on Sunday he must have gotten a little tired of this whole no-Mommy thing. He was NOT in a good mood at all. Luke likes going for rides in my truck, so figured I’d head to Home Depot with him. All I needed was a screw. One measly little screw. (Get your mind out of the gutter.) So I grabbed Luke, put him in the truck and headed to Home Depot. We got there and I went to get him out. He told me to close the door. He didn’t want to get out. Now, a smart man would have just left him in the car, ran in, gotten the screw, and been back out in about 30 seconds. But since I didn’t want to get arrested for leaving a child in the car, I figured I’d take Luke inside with me. BIG mistake.
Luke screamed the WHOLE time I was in Home Depot. He wriggled and fussed and refused to be held. So I’d put him down. And he’d take off screaming, running in random directions. This continued for about 10 minutes. At one point, he’d thrown himself face first on the floor and was wriggling backwards down an aisle, screaming the whole time.
And of course, when I picked him up to head home, he was miserable. He didn’t want me to hold him, didn’t want to get in the car, didn’t want anything until I said the magic words “ice cream.” You know, perhaps this was just an elaborate ploy to get ice cream out of me. If so, it worked.
Luke continued to be a pill all Sunday morning, so I was quite relieved when noon came around and I got to put him down for a nap. I put him in his crib and sat down to watch the Bears game. I noticed that Luke kept talking to himself. This isn’t a rare occurrence. He usually talks himself to sleep. Only this time, he never stopped talking. After an hour, I heard him calling me. I waited a little longer until he basically started crying. Apparently, this nap wasn’t going to take.
So I got Luke down from his crib and let him play with his trucks. Except he wanted me to play with him. I tried to get him to watch football, but it wasn’t working. He just wanted to watch Choo Choo Street. After about an hour of driving me nuts, The Wife finally came home from her weekend away to put an end to my misery. You know, this might be the first time I’ve ever said that the arrival of The Wife put an end to my misery. But since we’re going to be having more kids and Luke’s not even CLOSE to being done with his Terrible Twos, I’m sure it won’t be the last.
