Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

First ride!

Well, it's reached the season of being hotter than balls. And with this new found season Ethan has decided he's going to push his boundaries as far as he possibly can. He will be a perfect angel for hours on end... but, when he decides he no longer wishes to behave it gets ugly in a hurry. Tantrums, screaming, crying, he threw a sandal at me one time in the car... I thought we were done with this crap after 3. Apparently, he's now just a 2 year old with a better vocabulary. And, one word he's using more than ever is 'never'. As in, "I'm NEVER going to apologize", "I'm NEVER going to talk to you again" and things of that nature. He's a little dramatic. I will say that most of this behavior occurs when he doesn't get his way so while I don't remember exactly what turned Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde... all you need to do to see the less pleasant side of Ethan is tell him "no". And don't worry, he doesn't reserve this behavior for just at home... he's not afraid to 'perform' in public. Though, I will say his best performances do happen at home.

He's also earning his black belt in 'reasons to get out of bed'. See a small sample below:

• I'm hungry
• I'm thirsty
• I poked my eye(I can picture him in there talking himself into actually jabbing a finger in his eye so he can find another reason to get out of bed)
• I have to go potty (even though he went 10 minutes earlier)
• I built you this lego truck (so apparently he wasn't in bed anyway)
• I'm hot
• I'm not tired
• My eye itches
• I need a band aid for this non-existent injury
• Tonight, he couldn't sleep until he asked me "daddy, do sharks have bones?"

For anyone who hasn't read the 'Go The F*ck To Sleep' book I highly recommend it. It's brilliant and I've had the pleasure of experiencing so many of the emotions in that book lately. The best part of Ethan dicking around for another hour after he's supposed to be in bed comes the next morning when I'm trying to wake Ethan up. The kid hears nothing. Which is great for storms and fireworks and things of that nature... but, it sucks when you've said his name 20 times, had his radio on for 20 minutes and he still hasn't twitched.

A couple weeks back Ethan spent a long weekend with Papa and Grandma Brett before we all headed north to Brainerd to spend a day at the track and two at the water park. Ethan LOVED the water park. There were endless things for him to do along with 3 slides. For hours I kept trying to get him to go down the smallest slide by himself. He steadfastly refused. He would even panic if I pretended I was going to push him down the slide by himself. Later on, he befriended a couple of other boys a little older than him. The second they went down the slide by themselves Ethan was right behind them. I asked for hours and got nothing... these two miscreants show up and suddenly he can't wait to do it himself. The first night Ethan and I spent the last 45 minutes walking up 5 or so flights of stairs to take the tube slide down. Over, and over and over... He loved it though. The last turn right before you come out is a big one and at first I would always say "here we go" and by the end Ethan was announcing it without me. The next day I spent most of the day at the track getting my Mario Andretti on... Ethan spent the day with Grandma in the water park. They had a blast. Ethan spent a little while at the track watching, but the weather wasn't the best and he couldn't get real close so it didn't hold his attention real long. Though, he did have a lot of questions about why Uncle Nicky's car started on fire.

The Friday before the 4th of July Ethan had a parade at daycare. The kids all wore red, white and blue and marched around outside. At one point they all sang the National Anthem... except Ethan. He told Kari "i don't know the words" even though it was clear they had been practicing prior to the parade. I guess I can cross teen heart-throb/boy band member off the list of my plans for using Ethan for early retirement. Damn.

Ethan spent the 4th of July in Minnesota. He had a blast playing with the neighbor girls. From the time they were both awake until it was finally bed time Ethan and Jessica were pretty much inseparable. And, that includes some... unfortunate time together. I was sitting downstairs reading at one point when Ethan came down. He walked up to me, gave me kind of a weird smile and softly said "Jessica and I went stinky together." That certainly got my attention. Rest of conversation:

Me - "You did what?"

Ethan - "We went stinky together."

Me - "Like... you were both in the bathroom?"

Ethan - "No, we both had to go so we did"

Me - --in shock--

Ethan - --laughs--

Me - --still in shock--

Ethan - --still laughing--

Me - --trying to wrap my mind around this-- "So, you went at the same time?"

Ethan - "Yep. And, I got poo on my hands"

I honestly did not know what to do or say at this point. I told him he shouldn't do that again, but didn't get into the details on why. Oh, and we went and washed his hands.

Another night it was Ethan, Lauren and Jessica playing together. And, as my mom said, 3 can never play together well. I guess the girls turned on Ethan, he got tired of it so he told them "You're mean, I'm leaving" and he went across the cul-de-sac and played with the boys outside. I'm rather proud of him for standing up to them. He's nothing if not a strong willed little boy. See above in regards to getting his way... Thankfully they made up later.

While we were in Minnesota we spent quite a bit of time in the pool. I asked Ethan over and over if he wanted to jump off the board by himself. Despite the fact he first did that when he was 2 he wanted nothing to do with it this time until... some friends of mine from Des Moines came up to go to the A Perfect Circle concert with me and prior to the show we spent an afternoon in the pool. Lo and behold Jackie gets in the pool and asks Ethan to jump off by himself and not only does he do that he starts doing tricks off the board as well. It's like I'm back in the bar again in Ames getting ignored by the bartender because I don't have the proper 'assets' to get his attention. It was crap then, and it's crap now. It appears Ethan only caves to peer pressure from actual peers or from someone of the female gender.

This past weekend we all went to see Cars2. Ethan loved it. Before we were even out of the theater he told me that "I'd really like to get that and watch it again". I thought the movie was pretty decent. I don't know why everyone hated it so much. Yeah, I realize it was a little brainwashy about pushing the anti-big oil agenda, but other than that it was entertaining. Though, there was quite a bit of violence and a lot of death threats. Usually, I'm all for that in movies. The more people who get gunned down, the better. But, I found myself cringing some watching those scenes with Ethan. Granted, Ethan has been watching Spongebob get his face cut off, get smashed, cut into pieces, etc. since he was two, but this was different for some reason. Though, sometime around his age I was subjected to that god awful movie The Wizard of Oz... and due to the things I witnessed in that I haven't been the same since.