Mr. Contrary

I blame it all on my mother. Nearly 2 years ago while visiting them for a weekend, Mr. Y developed a very bad case of Croup and needed to be taken to the emergency room. After a couple of treatments of Albuterol, his breathing became very loose and rattled, but we could not get him to cough for us...until my Mom started to say, "Don't you DARE cough! I do NOT want to hear any coughing from you! Only Grammy is allowed to cough!" It worked like a charm, and before long, Y was coughing away and giggling.

It's probably not the best way to parent, but we've used the whole "reverse psychology" thing ever since...not on big, important issues of course, but on the little things - like getting him to pick up toys neatly or getting him to smile when we're trying to take a picture. For example, if we don't say anything, all of the pictures that we take of him would look like this:

or this:

If, however, we say, "Yikealo, don't you DARE smile, or you will probably break my camera!" we get something more like this:

or this:

(Notice that it doesn't work so well if you're also trying to take a photo of a more compliant child, who will take you completely seriously if you tell her not to smile!)

I'm not sure why I had never thought to use it on food. Yikealo can be the POKIEST eater at times...usually when the meal involves some type of meat. Sometimes he'll eat everything just fine, but most of the time, he will take about two bites of chicken or beef and it can take nearly a half hour to chew each bite. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! I just do NOT have the patience to sit with him at the table for that long, so we have rarely finished a meal together. David and I finish eating and then get up from the table to go do something else, while Y sits there for another hour rearranging food on his plate and getting up to come tell us something about every 2 minutes. Well, my Mom just came up with the perfect solution. We were visiting them last weekend, and she had made roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn for supper. I gave Y a miniscule piece of beef and cut it into microscopic pieces. It was very tender and easy to chew, but I knew that he'd take his typical 1/2 hour to chew a bite. It turns out that I was wrong! He was sitting beside my Mom, who started to tell him things like, "Don't you dare show me an empty mouth! I can't stand to see empty mouths at the table! Here, quick, let's get another bite in there!" Before we knew it, Y was shoveling in the food and swallowing in record time, just so he could show Grammy his empty mouth and watch her pretend to shudder in revulsion. The best part? It works at home too! On Wednesday evening we had chicken breasts and baby carrots for supper. Y was fussing about the menu until I tried Mom's little routine with him: "Yikealo, don't you dare show me your empty mouth! Do you know what I hate even more than an empty mouth? I HATE to see an empty plate! Please do NOT show me your plate when it's all empty!" I have never seen him eat chicken so fast. Yes, it's slightly annoying to have to pretend scream in terror at his empty mouth every minute or so, but it's not nearly as annoying as constantly begging him to chew and swallow for an hour! Now at the beginning of a meal he asks, "Can we please play the 'empty mouth' game?"

Now, onto our numbers for the last 2 months! This is really showing what a bad blogger I have become, since I haven't updated our waitlist numbers since July. In August we were at #40 for a girl and #29 for a boy.

In September we were at #37 for a girl and #27 for a boy.

And what's with Spiderman, you ask? Well, on our vacation to Michigan a few weeks ago, a discount store in the little town where our cottage is located had just received a large shipment of Halloween costumes. They were all under $10, so we invested in Superman and Spiderman costumes for Mr. Y.

 (In this photo, his cousin Ashton is helping him fight crime.)

He has worn a costume pretty much every day since...he just alternates between Buzz and one of the two superheros. Sometimes he wears all three within one day's time.

Don't worry though...he isn't too much of a tough guy yet. He still has to take lots of time out for Daddy worship. In Michigan, he followed David around everywhere, singing a little ditty that went something like this: "Superman is on the job! He is working with his Dad!" It's good to know that some things stay the same, no matter who he is pretending to be...