No pics of me

It really pisses me off that there are so few pictures of me with my own son. Can no one else but me pick up a damn camera? Not a single shot of me with my son on Easter. I swear, most of his childhood is going to be pictures of just him, which is not a bad thing, or of him with everyone else. Why am I the only one who ever shoots any pictures, huh?

Traumatized Child

Last night we were out in the backyard. Robert was cooking dinner. Tyler had been playing with the cats, namely, Ops, the 6-toed wild cat. Tyler just loves this cat. And he is the only one of the 3 cats that even lets him near him. Robert opened the gate and was putting some of his tools back in the garage that he had used this last weekend, like his rake, lawnmower, etc. Tyler wanted to play in the driveway for a bit, so we let him. At that point, I saw Ops go out the gate and head down the alley. This is nothing unusual. We sometimes call this cat "Wild Animal" because he is the wanderer, the hunter, the stalker. Robert finished loading the tools into the garage, and we all went back into the backyard. Next thing I know, there's Ops with a HUGE BIRD (happened to be a cardinal!) hanging out of his mouth! Tyler saw him, and immediately starting yelling, "Op, Op, Op!!!" (he still doesn't know to put the "s" on the end of his name) and the lower lip was trembling and he was very close to crying, he was sort of jumping up and down, and he was very visibly, if not audibly, upset. We tried calming him down. I went and got a paper towel for Robert to pick up the now dead bird. I thought at the time that he was probably upset about the fact that Ops had caught a bird. Only later did I realize that it wasn't so much the bird that had affected him like this. I think that Tyler thought that Ops was hurt.

So, we calmed him down as best we could, and it was close to bedtime, so I got him in his pajamas and put him to bed. A few hours later, Robert and I were watching tv, and we heard this crying over the baby monitor. "Op! Op! Op!" So of course we both rushed in there, and he was so very upset with a nightmare. We both held him, and told him it was ok, and cuddled him for a few moments, and put him back down. Then I went out and had a cigarette. While I was outside, I saw Ops, and that's when it occurred to me that he probably wasn't upset about the bird. Instead, I thought that he might be concerned that Ops had gotten hurt. So I picked Ops up, and took him back inside. Sure enough, while I was outside, he had woken up again (hadn't really gone back to sleep after all), and Robert was in his room, cuddling him and holding him. They were both laying on the floor. Robert said he was literally trembling. So I had Ops with me. I brought him in there, and showed him to Tyler so that he could see he was "ok." We let him pet him, and talked real soothingly to him, and I think that really eased his mind. He slept the rest of the night through, as usual.

It really surprised me how much this affected him. I mean, for him to get visibly upset initially, to the point where he was almost crying.... then to have nightmares about it to the point of trembling. He loves that cat more than we realized I guess. And I really don't think it was about the bird. I think he's too young to understand that Ops had killed a bird. I think he was just upset thinking Ops had been hurt.

Today, he was just fine. You'd never know any of this happened. Except I'm still completely amazed at his compassion at this age. Yet he can throw a ball and hit one of us in the head and not think about it twice. :) Maybe that's the thing that's weird. It's like we struggle to get him to understand that some of the things he does can be hurtful to someone else, and then he sees a bird in a cat's mouth, and freaks out. Maybe he understands more about hurting than I realized.

Big Eyes

Last night, I put a new pair of pajamas on Tyler. Well, they are new to him. I got them at a consignment sale. They are really primary green, with BIG EYES on the front of the shirt, and BIG EYES all over the pants. He liked them. This morning, when I went to change him, he started freaking out, wanting the BIG EYES shirt back on. "Big Eyes!!! Big Eyes!!!!" So I put them back on him, and he was happy.



Oh, and he is chomping on a piece of banana in this picture, therefore, the mouth.

Water Line

We have had Verizon guys in our neighborhood for the past few weeks. Yesterday, they had the big truck in front of my house, and then I found a note on my door explaining how they would be having their "men" out here for the next (did it say year?) or so, installing fiber optics.... and blah de blah.... they would do everything they could to minimize the impact, etc., etc. This morning after feeding Tyler his lunch, I went to rinse a rag out, and the water pressure was down to a trickle. At first I thought it was the kitchen faucet that had finally come loose (another of those things that Robert needs to fix, but he won't until it becomes so loose that it falls off and then he HAS to fix it). So I went and checked the bathroom sink. Not much water pressure. So I went and asked one of the hard-hat guys out front, and he said yes, that they had probably cut a water main. He said they would fix it. So, here is what my front yard looks like right now. Picture was taken from my front door.



Isn't that pretty?

Go Wash Your Mouth Out---NOT!

When I am washing Tyler's hands and I get to the rinse part, there are soap bubbles left in the sink. I rinse one hand, and he dunks the other hand in the soap. Then I rinse that hand, and he dunks the other one in the soap. I usually have to continue this until all the soap bubbles are washed out of the sink. Then I consider his hands to finally be rinsed. Lately though, he will dunk his hand into the leftover soap bubbles and then promptly put his hand in his mouth. Tonight he did this, and said, "mmmmm" as in, "mmmm" that tastes good. What? Does this mean when he gets older and says a bad word, that "washing his mouth out with soap" won't be an option? Looks like to me, this would be something less than punishment. WTF?

A Child Left Alone

Yes, this is what happens when you leave your child alone for just a few minutes.