hottie queen, knock her up with twins, go seriously bad, get his ass handed to him by his former teacher, get a cool new robot outfit, try to take over the universe, then ends up getting jacked by his son…you know, that guy…well I was sitting with Landon yesterday and he was making this funny voice, it was almost a growl…and I asked him what he was doing…to which he replied:Doug Rader says “I AM YOUR FATHER!!!”
So I stared at him for about a minute…thinking, thinking…I know that line, but it can’t possibly be what I think he means…he has never seen those movies…so I ask…
“Do you mean Darth Vader says “I am your father”?”
“Yup Daddy, Doug Rader says it!”…Apparently he learned all about Mr. Rader at school the other day from some of his older friends…
Hmmm…I was torn here…on one hand my inner child was totally geeking out at the fact that my 3 year old boy is quoting one of the coolest movie quotes of all time…on the other hand, he’s only 3 and I’m not quite sure he’s ready to be watching those kind of flicks. And if they’re quoting lines from those movies to him now, it’s only going to get worse…pretty soon he’ll be coming home quoting Home Alone “Leave it on the doorstep and get the hell out of here!” and before I know it he’ll be quoting my favorite movies back to me like Coming to America ” Oh there they go. There they go, every time I start talkin 'bout boxing, a white man got to pull Rocky Marciano out their ass. That's their one, that's their one. Rocky Marciano. Rocky Marciano. Let me tell you
something once and for all. Rocky Marciano was good, but compared to Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano ain't shit.” (Ok, who am I kidding, that’s going to be awesome when he can do that!).Anyhow, being the super cool Dad that I am, I went over, got the Star Wars DVD set and sat down with him to show him who Darth Vader actually was...his eyes were the size of dinner plates when he saw the cover, and when I started to show him the other ones, he was pretty much demanding that we watch them then and there. I promised him that when he was a bit older, we’d absolutely spend some time getting acquainted with Mr. Rader and all of his pals…not to mention all the other fun movies that I’m going to get to watch for the first time through his eyes…Indiana Jones, Harry Potter (after he reads the books of course), Lethal Weapon, and about a million others that I could rattle off. I know it’s nerdy, but I’m really looking forward to that.
This week we have also seen an alarming increase in Landon’s desire to climb. He has never been much of a climber inside the house, although it’s a totally different story when we get him outdoors.
But lately we’ll come walking into a room and he’ll have pushed a stool or something to stand on over to a dresser or shelf, which he’ll then use to climb up on to something even higher. I’ve found him reaching the top shelves in our closets (including those with medicine on them, gulp!), and he’s climbed on the kitchen counters when the stove has been on (yikes!)…Needless to say we’ve been doing our best to talk to him about it and explain that when he wants something from up high, he needs to come get one of us and we’ll help him get it down…The problem is, most of the stuff that is placed up high is stuff that we don’t want him getting, and he knows this, so he tries to sneak up and get it without alerting us…which is a whole different problem! Ahh, the joys of parenting.We have also implemented a new “trick” for dealing with temper tantrums which I highly recommend you parents try….we call it the “Miss Eileen”, as it was Landon’s old teacher from school that explained how she would successfully get him to calm down when he was in the middle of a full meltdown. Basically all you do is get down on to your knees and bang your head against the wall until you pass out! I kid, I kid…actually what you do is get down on your knees so that you’re eye level with the kid (instead of looking down on them which can be imposing)…then you sort of put your hand in front of their face (without getting too clos
e to them) and then lower your hand while saying “calm down” in a very soothing voice (which is the tricky part when they’re screaming at you, trying to hit/bite/scratch you), and you just do this over and over again until they calm down. It takes a little practice, but has worked wonders for us, and it actually helps me calm down a little as well. Give it a try, what’s the worst that can happen? Well, besides getting your hand slapped or your fingers bitten off?The weather here has been great lately, and we managed to spend a good chunk of last weekend outside. We had some friends over and Landon was all about bouncing on the trampoline with Abby and Allie. We’ve also been practicing throwing and catching the football while bouncing, which he’s getting pretty good at. We’re hoping that the weather stays nice this weekend as we have some more friends coming over, and we’re planning to BBQ…for Easter we’re looking forward to an awesome Easter Egg Hunt, a trip to church, and a meal with my Mom’s family…should be a fun day and we’ll be sure to take some pictures.
Hope you all have a Happy Easter!
That tantrum trick sounds like a Jedi mind trick straight out of Doug Radar's playbook. The happiest toddler stuff works pretty well if I'm calm enough to use it, but I could probably use something that helps calm both of us down.
ReplyDeleteI tried the Jedi mind trick before...I told him that he didn't need to pee in his closet...I guess the force is strong in that one and not so much in me.
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