SELF

So, there is a story that has almost become a legend at my house (Stuckey house) that when I was a child, my mom would have to get us ready for church or wherever else we were going at least half an hour early to deal with my propensity to say, "Self" and want to do (or try to do) everything myself before I would let her do it. Apparently, even before I could tie my shoes, I would insist on trying to do it myself for a while before I would say "you" and let my mom do it for me.

Now, although I still insist such contrary behavior must be the worst kind of falsehood (I have always been delightful, and I am sure that shone through in my easy-going personality as a child)... Nevertheless, my mom cursed me to have a child who already exhibits such personality traits as she claims I manifested. It began a while ago, when Eli decided walks in the stroller were NOT acceptable and insisted on walking around wherever his royal highness decided he should go. He will NOT hold your hand, and he throws a non-cute little fit if you try to redirect his path. (He does make a concession for going down steep slopes, or climbing up and down things--he will regally extend his hand for you to hold it in order to help him do these things, and then promptly dismiss your hand once the task is done.)

Well, I think our biggest problem is that he doesn't yet know the word "self". I have begun to see similar behavior in other areas, lately, such as putting on his shoes (luckily velcro) and his jacket. He is actually pretty good at that.

I found a new one this morning, the event that prompted this post. Eli lives cereal. We eat it a lot and he loves to do what mom and dad do. So a week ago, when he began to refuse to eat it, I thought it was odd. I had switched to other things (like yogurt, etc.) but he kept pointing at our cereal...and whining. Then when we tried to feed it to him he would throw a fit and act upset. It had occurred to me before that he wanted our actual bowl and spoon. (Several days ago I discovered that he eats GREAT if I give him a fork and let him feed himself lunch and dinner. He eats EVERYTHING on a fork, even bites of sandwich. I know, it's strange!) Anyhow, this morning I tried something I knew would be a disaster...I gave him his own bowl of cereal and spoon.

He is a child that loves to dump things out. I had a cartoon-esque premonition that he would hurl the whole bowl accross my recently mopped (last night) floor. I gave him Rice Chex, thinking there wouldn't be any sugary residue... But, no! I was wrong. He ate the whole bowl with his spoon, holding his free hand under the spoon to catch any drips of milk!! And to top it all off, when he finished, he lifted the bowl in both hands to his mouth and drank the milk, just like mommy does. IT WAS AMAZING! Then I gave him another small bowl and he did the same thing again! (Even to the "drinking the milk" part!)

Yeah, so I guess I just had to understand that he needs to do things himSELF.

One other thing I thought I would throw in to satiate my mom's undying desire for photos--he loves to plink on the keyboard and play with the mouse. To keep him from messing things up, like putting 27 calendars on our desktop, which he did the other day, or opening Media player 48 times... we put a fake keyboard and mouse on the roll out desk part... which fooled him for about 20 minutes... but he still plays with them while we work on the computer. I thought I would sneak a photo this morning of him on dad's lap with the two sets of computer things. You will notice there are animal magnets on the computer desk, too. Those (of course) came from Grandma Stuckey, but he carries them around all over the house and makes the noises or more often, wants you to make the noises for each one. It's pretty funnny. The second photo is just in there to make my mom happy.