Oops

The other day Ethan was playing outside (it was one of the cool days that followed Gustav, and it was nice to let him take advantage).

We had this plastiky fake-ceramic garden fairy out there, which was already in pretty bad shape. I happened to look out the window and saw him carrying it over to the concrete patio, right in front of the window. He can't see inside because of the solar screens, so he didn't know he was being watched...

So he dropped the fairy, and though I didn't see it (because the impact point was below what I could see through the window), I knew it would break. Ethan's reaction was priceless though. He just stood there motionless for a few seconds staring at the broken pieces with a look of complete horror on his face. At that point I started cracking up and everyone else in the room started watching the show.

After the realisation of what he had done set in, Ethan went into damage limitation mode. He picked up two of the larger pieces and ran in a wide arc across the back lawn looking for somewhere to hide the evidence. He ended up hiding them at the end of the deck, and then came scurrying back for more pieces.

At this point we went outside and tried to look cross. :) The rest is basic parenting, but the reactions he had were just priceless.

What's up with that?

For his bed time story tonight Melanie read Ethan a book about God. We go from Dr. Seuss to Thomas the Tank Engine to Mr. Men and all kinds of other topics, but tonight was a short one about God for kids.

Melanie called me in after a while to help answer a rather difficult question. Ethan had picked up on a line in the book that said that God gives us shelter and food to eat, and wanted to know why if that was the case, there are children in the world who have no food to eat.

Neither of us could think of a good answer, so we just said we didn't know. His next line was priceless though.

"But Mommy, we have food to eat, and sometimes I'm hungry. What's up with that?"

A threat to take seriously?

Yesterday we had our usual struggle getting Ethan to take his nap (he was up early that morning). Well, almost usual.

He normally gets quite annoyed when we put him down for a nap, usually running away, and hitting us as we catch him. But what was different about this time was what he said to try to detract us.

"If you put me down for a nap I'll kick your little ass!!!!"

Of course, Melanie and I had to really struggle to not laugh. It's simply not what you expect, especially since it was something we certainly didn't want to encourage.

So, where did he get it from? "Harry said it" he said.

Harry?

"In Spiderman to Peter Parker."

Ah, that's it. Spiderman 3, when Parker works out that Harry has got his memory back and confronts Harry about it. I remembered the scene. Hmm....

Today he said it to his couson (of 5 years), so it's not a one off incident. The dilema now is of course what to do with it. If you make too much of it, it could be an attention earner for him. Don't do enough and he'll think it's ok.

Ethan's first day at 'school'

Today Ethan spent four hours at a "Mothers' day out" preschool. He will be doing this twice a week now until Summer, so it gives us some quiet time, and him some new opportunities that are the main point to the exercise.

Aside from learning new things, Ethan will be able to interact with other children his own age. In particular, he's not really ever been around other boys his age as all of his cousins are girls. We're hoping that his new social interaction will not only allow him to make new friends, but will also be an outlet for him that will let him let of steam and improve his behaviour at home.

I'm delighted to be able to report that he behaved very well indeed on his first day. We had no problems dropping him off, and his teacher said he was very good indeed all day.

His next day there is on Tuesday. Hopefully the good behaviour continues!

"Calling the Police"

Last night we had the usual struggle to try and get Ethan to eat his dinner.

He eventually got so annoyed with us that he decided to call the Police. He got his toy mobile phone, dialed, and the conversation went something like this:

"Hello? This is the truth. Um, Mommy and Daddy are being mean to me. Yes. Can you come and take them away? Bye."

So he hung up and informed us that the police were coming to take us away. I hinted at Sean to call my phone, which I answered as though the Police had called me.

"Hello? Oh, hello Officer. Yes, I know you just talked to Ethan. There are a few things he didn't tell you though. He won't eat his dinner. Yes, that's right. And he keeps talking rudely to Mommy and Daddy. Uhuh. Yes, I'll tell him. Thank you Officer. Bye."

I looked Ethan and said something like the Police Office wasn't very happy with him, and he just collapsed on his chair, head in his hands sobbing: he was genuinely upset. We were already speechless at this when he whimpered:

"I'll never see my family again!"

He actually thought we were going to get him taken away by the Police! Of course at that point we had to comfort him and tell him that was was all a joke, but we're still very surprised that he took it so seriously, and at his reaction which was at the same time heart-melting and downright cute.