Four or Fourteen, keep your babies locked up when KJ strolls through

Baby Brother has been getting lots of badly-needed attention lately.  Or is it bad attention he's been getting? 

It's both.

I really support the idea of KJ playing with dolls, stuffed animals, dishes, and whathaveyou to make him a tad less caveman-ish a nice, well-rounded kid.  Except for last Christmas when he included Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus in a letter to Santa, Kevin is also in full support of KJ playing with all different kinds of toys.  Though our roles of Kevin bringing home the bacon and my cooking it are a little Ward and June, it stops about there.  I create the monthly budgets and write the bills.  Kevin washes dishes every night.  I am just as likely to be seen in our front yard using the leaf blower, and Kevin is not immune to folding laundry (actually, he kinda rolls it up into wrinkled piles and mixes the 12 month stuff with the 5T, but sassy criticisms such as that will be saved for another day.)  (For the record, I blow every last leaf to the curb.)

Needless to say, I have been overjoyed to interact with my son and his recently-resurrected toy.  Whenever he brings that naked, disheveled Cabbage Patch my way, I play right along.

Last week he had him crying.  He was probably crying because he had been naked for nearly two weeks, and was dragged around by the hair by Jack, but KJ was sure he was hungry.  He fed him from his sippy cup and then beat patted his back for a burp.  In typical fashion of my reflux children, Baby Brother even spit up. 

Then he would not stop crying.

He cried and cried and cried.  And cried.  I tried my best to guess what KJ wanted to do with him, but to suggestions like, "maybe he needs a nap" or "maybe he needs some clothes," I was given the look of Your-Cabbage-Patch-maternal-instincts-are-so-lacking-it's-shameful.

Finally I gave up, and over my child's ear-piercing, getting-real-old-real-quick pretend doll cries, I asked, then what should you do with him?

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Shake him."

Thankfully as I clutched my chest and fell to the floor and gasped for my last few breaths of life as a failed parent, he showed me that what he meant was bounce the damn doll on his hip.

Back to Hot Wheels, dammit!

Comments

[Frema]

Ha! I actually gasped out loud at the "Shake him" part, not because I thought KJ was participating in a popular form of child abuse, but because I was imagining the look on your face when he said it.

This is a story to share with the future wife. Most definitely.

[Jenabeeb]

He never fails to crack me up!

[Sant]

Haha! You know, he's a very smart boy, so maybe that shake reflex is due to the fact that is he simply too young to read and become, next, the expert in child care...

Look for that one Spring, 2008.

[Lynanne]

Absolutely hilarious! I agree - it's definitely one to share with his future spouse :)

[Stacey]

Bwa-hahahaha!!!!