Today was much better than yesterday. Max and I went to school early for Doughnuts with Dad and had a pretty good time. Max ate one bite of a doughnut and wouldn’t drink any juice. He wanted to go run and play with Carter and see his other friends, like Noah, Mayzie, and Hannah.
While I was finishing our doughnuts Mrs Eileen told me she had something she wanted to share with me. What she had to share is something Max has said before, but it was especially gratifying to learn that he said it without my being nearby. Mrs Eileen said that when they were creating cards for us dads, they had to answer what they liked most about their dads. She said she asked Max what he liked most about me, and he replied that I was his best friend.
I love being my little fellow’s best friend, but I am his daddy first.
And in the blank that describes what my job is, the little fellow answer was, “to take care of me.” He was spot-on with that one.
When I picked him up I was surprised to learn that he didn’t get to pick a toy from his class’s treasure box. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, because he pulled all three of his vegetables this week—two on Tuesday and one yesterday. The little fellow seemed to understand why he wasn’t privileged to choose a toy from the treasure box. The first thing that popped into my mind was to take him to Toys“R”Us and buy him anything he wanted, but grit my teeth and held back because that’s the way things are set up at school, and that is what he must follow if he’s to be a member of his class.
So we came home and he melted down about my opening the van’s door. He wanted to be able to open it, but I didn’t know and he had a bonafide tantrum in the van all by himself. Then when we got upstairs he melted down when I began to open the surprise he had for me. I put him in timeout and let him calm down enough for me to open it. It was a ceramic plate with his handprint in the middle. He began to melt down again and wanted to hold the plate, and though I let him grip it, I wouldn’t let go of it, which escalated his meltdown. Back to timeout he went. Twice.
Finally, I got him into his highchair for lunch, and Mimi stopped by to see her favorite grandson and get a hug and a kiss from him. After lunch I let him have a big Christmas-tree-shaped lollipop that Santa had left in his stocking. I was surprised to see him eat about half of it before putting it down on the wax paper I laid on his tray.
We went upstairs to watch Fireman Sam and settle down for the little fellow’s nap. It was a few minutes after 3:00 pm when I put him down, and fifteen minutes later when I went back upstairs I heard him talking to himself. I left him alone and in a few minutes all I could hear was his music, calm lullabies that he’s listened to since before he was born. He napped for nearly four hours, and when he awoke Granny was here. Granny, Mama, Mimi, and Grandpa went out to dinner tonight and I stayed home with Max.
Max had a big time with Granny, but he was too rambunctious with her. The boy has surplus energy and he just doesn’t know what to do with it. And neither do we. We could tell that his roughhousing was a turbo-charged ebullience and not anything aggressive.
After dinner the little fellow went with Mama and Granny to carry Granny home. He wanted ice cream at Granny’s and she was glad to give him some.
When Mama and our little buddy returned home he was as wild as a buck. Just now as I write this I hear Mama threatening to send him to his bed without a video if he doesn’t calm down.
We’re about to watch a Berenstain Bears video from bed. Hopefully, Baybay can settle down in a little bit.
