What Would Mandy Pepperidge Say?

That boy is a P-I-G PIG! We need to have a serious discussion about table manners and toddlers, and how those are two things that do NOT belong in the same sentence, paragraph...you name it.

We have been blessed with a great eater (knock on wood). We are not the people who, at this point, have to worry about if our child is eating enough. It's really not a problem. I suppose we could be concerned about fluid intake, but we don't need to be...he's hydrated.

The issue are the sports of food flinging, bowl dumping and cup dropping. Sports for which my child is on track for a berth on the United States Olympic Team. With meals, he usually dives in and eats. And then somewhere along the way, he will casually drop a piece on the floor. Followed by dramatically drinking from his cup, which is then also dropped on the floor. This is IMMEDIATELY followed by a crazy swipe of the hand and more food on the floor, at which point Jason and I are now diving across the table to pop off his tray and end the food olympics.

I visited school to secretly observe his lunch time to see if he was saving this amazing behavior for home or if he was treating his teachers and classmates to these theatrics. He did not disappoint. Today's lunch was chicken and dumplings, green beans and strawberries. He loves and will eat all these items with vigor. At school they have progressed to giving them food on paper plates, in bowls and with a plastic spoon...which is pure entertainment by the way. When I arrived and peered in the window, my child was holding an empty bowl of chicken and dumplings over his head with a sippy cup of milk laying on the floor next to him. Eight children at the table, seven cups on the table, one on the floor. Nice.

Then his teacher offered him additional chicken and dumplings. Which he ceremoniously lifted off the table and would have so dumped on his head had she not wisely snatched it from his mischievous hand. Seriously. My child' s table manners are a nightmare. We are doing everything we are supposed to be doing and it continues. I guess he's not the only one and that when I looked he was the only one that had the cup on the floor but there are five of them that do that. And only one of them actually uses the spoon. But I didn't see anyone else starting the food fight at Faber. All that was missing was a square of Jell-o to inhale.

On the upside, today he said please for the first time. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

Kill or Be Killed

This is my philosophy about the toddler 1 class at Jackson's School. Really any toddler class. They are learning about being independent, they are mobile, they have wants and needs, and they have anywhere from 0-20 words to communicate these things, and usually the other toddlers don't have the same 20 words. Thus, when someone wanders into their space and either tries to take something away or bother them, the responses they are equipped with from least harmful to most harmful are:
1 - Pushing
2 - Pulling hair
3 - Biting

The responses to those three responses are the same. Pushing, pulling hair or biting. My son seems to favor method two, the hair pull. He learned the hard way that this is not a generally accepted method of communication when one of his classmates responded by biting his arm in three places in a span of 5 seconds. Two days later, he still has the teeth marks to prove it. If he is pushed, he generally will push back.

He hasn't bitten anyone except for me and his father. He bit his dad on the leg on Wednesday night, which we now attribute to the brand new tooth that appeared this morning. He now has a fang...I pity any child who incurs the wrath of his bite with that new tooth...it won't be good.

Today we get his ears rechecked after our bout with a double ear infection two weeks ago. We'll see if we've got tubes in his future or some kind of intolerance for a food that's making it happen. Whatever. I'm just hoping for no accident report when I pick him up today.

Rewards

Membership has its privileges. Jackson's latest thing is maybe among his most wonderful. His walking has gotten to the point where he will occasionally attempt dashing. He will also play with things by himself, and then turn around to make sure we are still there. Then, often times, once he sees one of us, he will run across the room and at the last minute lift up his arms so we can scoop him up and give him some lovin. It is adorable. He did this several times today at the mall play area. He would wander away behind some of the big rubber dinosaurs, play a bit, then turn around to see where I was, and run over and grab my leg.

There was also an incident at the mall. There is a particular feature of the play area on the wall...a disc that has plastic sprinkles inside and when you turn it, the sprinkles fall all inside the disc. Jackson loves it. Today he had waited his turn to play with it, and this little three or four year old kid marched over and essentially shoved Jackson out of the way. My boy did not fall down, he did not cry. I was about 20 feet away and started walking over because I knew what was coming next. Little 28 inch tall, 22 pound Jackson wound up and stiff armed this kid right in the chest. I got there about 2 seconds before four year old socked him a good one, and to be honest, once I was there Jackson was a little upset.

My feelings about this incident are mixed. Obviously the last thing you want your kid to do is hit. But I also don't want him to tolerate being bullied and pushed out of the way by this kid either. I'm not saying socking a kid in the face is good, but I think there are times I would rather he stick up for himself than come running for me or Jason. It's a small issue at school now that he went from being king in the castle in infant 2 to the youngest and smallest kid in toddler 1. He' s not interested in being low man, and he's not going to put up with people taking away his toys or pushing him around in there either. So it's something we'll continue to monitor and help him figure stuff out, but again...I'm not that upset that he sticks up for himself. I think that's cool.

Sidenote: soon after I picked up Jackson we went to another part of the play area. When Jackson wandered back over to the disc that had caused this conflict, this kid's older sister who was like maybe 5 years old says, I'm very sorry but a minute ago my brother was not nice to that boy. It was so adorable. She had been chastising him for about two minutes about being nice to the baby. Then his mom showed up with the 9 month old baby...and I thought to myself, "Now I know why this kid is hitting mine...middle child."

Potpourri

Honestly there's not been that much new to report! We had another bout with an ear infection. Jackson got sent home from school on Thursday morning with a fever of like 101.3...not great but not overly alarming. I wasn't thrilled with his cough, so we went to the doc. Success! Red right ear drum equals antibiotics. So he became much more comfortable on Saturday afternoon and is back to himself. Sunday we went to a picnic for our cousin Matt, whose girlfriend Brandi is expecting a little girl on Father's Day. It's fun to take Jackson outside now. We slather up that sunscreen and he does well.

I think it's a big reason why he has transitioned so well at school. They play outside twice a day and have lots of things to play with and a nice shaded grass area as well. It's been so warm that they play with water as well, and next week they'll do some fun sprinkler time. Taking him to school in the morning simply sucks. When I leave, he screams. But I read that I shouldn't sneak out it will just freak him out more as opposed to just being upset that I'm leaving. So I have to endure that screaming while I walk out the door.

The garage sale was a success. Now our lives are about packing and finding a moving truck and friends and family to help.