If you ever think you are a tough guy or gal, try being tough with a baby. They’ll set your thinking straight.
We have a son, who’s about yae high (yae being my hand pointing to somewhere around my knee). And since he doesn’t know that he’s just yae high, nothing stops him from pulling his weight in the world.
Most of the time he’s an amiable creature, crawling about pulling clothes out of the cupboard – clothes that his mom meticulously folded and neatly stacked just about a minute ago. Or he pulls drawers out of closets. Or he is climbing the sofa and trying to dive out the back end …. it’s your regular peaceful day.
Now one thing he doesn’t like is a cap on his head or some rubber band keeping his hair together. Anonyma (my wife) and I both know this and we try a couple of times and then let him be. Then one day a few weeks ago, Anonyma decided to let him know who’s boss and the next 16 minutes went something like this:
Yobo (that’s his screen name for this blog) was playing as usual when Anonyma put a cap on his head. He stopped, sat on his knees, smiled at her and took th cap off and went back to his play. Anonyma picked up the cap and put it back on his head. Yobo smiled at her, didn’t even pause his play this time and took the cap off. Anonyma smiled and put the cap back on his head. “I have patience – I’m your mopther” she told him. There, now he would know. He just went on playing and taking the cap off.
To cut a long story short, after 16 minutes and 60-odd attempts, Anonyma gave up, exhausted, her hair all awry, her nerves jangling, and her smile just about hanging in there.
Yobo? Well, he just kept playing right through it. Whoever said kids have short attention spans should get their attention spans checked.
