LG : A charmer in public, a task master in private

Let me start by narrating an incident that happened this morning. I had to visit a bank next door to make an FD. This much-delayed task had to be attended to soon and I was just putting it off for some reason or the other every day. Yea, I know - FD of all investment avenues. Hey, but atleast it's better than seeing your stock/MF portfolio lose over 75% in value in a span of 9 months, isn't it?

It was about 10 in the morning and I decided I would take a shower and run down to the bank and get this over with. It had been a long day already - considering it was just 3 hours since we had been up. But it can be equivalent to staying up 20 hours with someone like LG. I had done two trips to the park, run around the slides with him, spent over 45 minutes trying to feed 6 spoons of porridge for breakfast and when that didn't work tried giving banana and cheeku which eventually ended in the dust bin. Now this whole exercise can be very draining. Throw in a few more activities in between like dragging him away from the bathroom, washing his mud-filled fingers, picking up a box full of cornflakes strewn on the floor, keeping a close watch as he reaches out for the extension cord and plugs it in, places 2 DVDs in the player, scrubs the floor like his mom - oh God! there's not a moment to relax while he is awake. Today was the peak of everything and I said to myself, "enough is enough. I'm taking him out with me to get the job done." My FIL warned he might not let me sign the documents and it would be a trouble lugging him around and suggested I leave him behind.

But my adorable son keeps a close watch on who enters and who leaves the house. The clicking sound of the front door is enough to make him dash across the hallway just to check if mama hasn't left. I tiptoed but he figured I had left and started screaming. So I came back and took him along. And was back in 30 minutes finishing a few other things on the way. To my surprise (which btw is not the first time and I had expected it), he was so well-behaved that the ladies at the bank couldn't stop praising him as to how well-behave and obedient a child he was. He let me sign the papers while sitting quietly on my lap, smiling charmingly at the ladies, occasionally waving at the others, and pointing to things familiar while they enjoyed his company. They couldn't stop raving how cute a kid LG was for 1 year 9 months. I almost felt like saying, "Please come home and see for yourself." but just sat there and felt like a proud mom for once.

And then this evening at the park there were a dozen kids as usual. LG played on the swing for a long time and I had to run errands so I left him in the company of my FIL. My FIL was all excited on my return to narrate what happened. There is this girl who is about 2 months older to LG and another one about three months younger to him. Both of them are the dominant sorts who hate sharing their toys - which is alright because it comes naturally to many kids. While the first one took her turn on the slide, LG went behind her when the other girl came as well. The perfect gentleman he is, got down two steps to let the younger go ahead of him, he went behind the two of them. A few minutes later, the girls parked themselves on top of the slide refusing to go down. LG who was behind them waited a few minutes. Seeing they weren't going down, he yelled in his own language which is "aay,ooy". He can be the perfect charmer and also knows to see his way through.

He is 2.5 months away from turning two. I don't know if it's the terrible two phase or whatever. But the past 4-5 days have been extremely draining managing the hyper-active toddler. Throwing a tantrum for everything from eating to wearing clothes has become second nature. Every day gets very challenging as he hurts himself a few times in the process of protesting. Yet there are moments when he exerts his independence and behaves like an adult talking to his dad laid back on the sofa or drinking a bowl of soup with a spoon. At such times, his mom is not allowed to be even within a hand's reach for fear she might 'help' him in his activity.