Parenting Skills

We're starting to experience Nathan's "parenting" skills. He's becoming more direct with us in his communication, using our own phrases and tone. Most of the time, he's telling us what he knows we're about to tell him... "No, sir!" (reaching onto the counter), "Not a toy" (playing with the phone, scissors - just kidding!), etc.
Last night he was getting sleepy, I guess, as we were wrapping up the news. He had just told me, "go lay down, daddy", and then marched over to the TV, turned it off, and said "brush teeth, go night-night". (Do not watch the sports highlights, do not argue or complain, do not pass go or collect $200!) He was so serious, we had to oblige. He told me, "turn the fan (ceiling) off, turn the lights off", and then he marched me back to the bathroom. We recently bought a new tube of toothpaste for Nathan, and the packaging has a big picture of "Sponge Bob" on it. He said, "brush a teeth a Ponge Bob!" Afterward, he had to go back to the living room to find "Colorado" the moose (Moose are afraid of dark living rooms), and he secured him in the bed next to "Billy" (the goat). I was getting my alarm set, when Nathan told me, "lay down, Daddy! - Close ya eyes!" He fussed at Laura, who was taking longer than us to get ready, and once we were in bed with the lights out, proceeded to claim Laura's pillow, as he told her "I love you, boo-boo." Laura slid him over and told him not to be a pillow hog. His last words before drifting off were "pillow hog! (giggle) pillow hog!" He's got us trained pretty well!

Recently, Nathan discovered that he can throw his little animals(beanie-sized) into the ceiling fan from our bed and they will fly across the room! He thinks it's hilarious (it is, really!), but we're concerned for the safety of all things breakable in our room when this happens. He also throws the animals with such force that he usually falls over backwards, and we don't want him to fall right over the edge of the bed! Anyway, after a few rounds of this game, we had to put a stop to it. Nathan fussed for a while, but we just refused to allow him on the bed with any toys, or on the bed at all. This worked great, since our bed is too tall for him to get onto by himself. Until today! Laura and I were busy in the front of the house, and Nathan disappeared. He often goes to his room to play, so I thought nothing of it. Suddenly, I had a "feeling" we should check on him, so I went to his room and found it empty. I started toward our room, calling his name, and found him on top of our bed with two plastic boats, hurling them at the ceiling fan! We had a "correctional discussion" and, hopefully, we won't have that problem anymore(we'll see!). I'm so looking forward to the day he thinks to lasso and ride the fan himself! It might be time to build a "jungle gym" in the back yard, so these adventures can take place outdoors. I'll have to install an industrial ceiling fan on it!

This morning, we were getting ready to wash the sheets on our bed, and Nathan put a pillow case on his head and took off down the hall, laughing. He was going to surprise Laura in the kitchen, but failed to properly navigate the doorway and ran right into the wall! He didn't cry or fuss, just continued to feel his way through the doorway into the kitchen in "stealth" mode toward mommy, until he plowed right into a chair! I couldn't stop laughing enough to get the video camera. He pushed the chair out of the way and made his way to mommy (also laughing) where he revealed the true identity of the "pillowcased prowler".

Enjoy your day! The adventure continues...