Oh, the bits…
So, for the longest time, it has been on between Happy and the above metal goat. We have a menagerie of metal animals in our side yard that are made from repurposed metal drums. For months, Happy has put this goat down for “night night” any time he has walked outside and seen that goat was up. If you look closely, you can see that the ear is gone on the side of the goat that constantly hits the ground. The horn is gone also. Well, BF took goat to a welder friend yesterday and had horn and ear reattached and the goat’s remaining horn, ear, and beard reenforced. We’ll see how long that lasts.
BF introduced Happy to The Lion King this weekend. I LOVE the Lion King. When I lived with my best friend from childhood, Jenny, after college, we named her new kitten Nala. I’ve seen the Broadway show three times and openly weeped- each time- at the play’s beautiful, breathless rendering of Circle of Life at the beginning. When Jennifer Hudson sang Circle of Life on American Idol years ago, I cheered in my living room. I own the Broadway show’s cd and listen to Endless Night, a song from the musical, on repeat. It’s gorgeous. And I would love to sit down and watch the movie with Happy. Except we can’t. We have to hit rewind after the ending notes of Circle of Life and play it again and again and again. For thirty minutes yesterday, Happy and I listened to and watched the Circle of Life. It’s pretty cute that he loves music that much, it is (and convenient because his mama loves music) but, I tell you, I might just have Lion King fatigue.
And our current parenting conundrum: how to get Happy to quit throwing EVERYTHING. I could care less about throwing in theory. The problem is that he throws spontaneously and spastically (though not maliciously) and, often enough, it hits someone and hurts them because he’s throwing heavy, hard things. If it were just me that it hit, that would be one thing. But he also throws when playing with friends and their reflexes are even slower than mine. We do time outs, we do apologies. We say, over and over again, throwing is for outside. We do all of it. And nothing is changing in terms of the constant throwing (and, hence, the periodic hurting of others). Any suggestions?
I bet he would love to play baseball or catch! OUTSIDE! Really wear him out too, when you throw the ball , he will get it, most competitive strong boys start out like this! He needs sports:)
Brenda, you are so right– we play ball outside all of the time. There were 2 hours of ball today, in fact. And we’re drilling into his head that throwing is for outside- not inside- and for balls not metal cars, etc. Some days he gets it better than others but things are certainly better now (less indoor, close quarters throwing of inappropriate items) than they were in December (thank goodness!).