surly, smart-assed rejection
Posted on March 27, 2007
Filed Under kids, parenting, Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club |
I am really starting to wonder when Adsense is going to forget about that lice post awhile back. Oh Shit, I’ve typed the word again ensuring a lifetime of LiceKiller ads on my blog. Enough already. If I write about regret and bitterness and abysmal sadness can we at least run some Prozac ads or feature some other psycho pharmaceutical we all might be interested in. Let’s move on Adsense, let’s move on.
Speaking of moving on, I’m sorry to beat this horse, but I need to record the latest development in O’s transformation into Judd Nelson’s character from The Breakfast Club. On Friday night, as I was putting O to bed, I began my usual ‘tucking in’ ritual which includes pulling the curtains, shoving loose clothing into drawers, picking staples out of the carpet and turning on the night light when O sat upright in his bed and announced, “I won’t be needing that night light anymore. So you can throw it out.”
There was an awkward silence before I unplugged it from the wall and walked over to the waste basket beside his desk. I dropped it in, feigning indifference, perfecting a what-do-I-care flip of the hand. It landed right side up, the sad embodiment of childhood innocence there at the bottom of the wicker trash can. I left it there all weekend, hoping he might reconsider. I anticipated a whispered, “I think I’d like my night light back,” sometime during the dark, cold night. But he was more than fine without it. He was positively glib with self importance by Sunday. Announcing to his sister, “You are still a baby because you need your closet light on at night and you sleep with a doll.” He said this with a snarl, indicating that being a baby was the absolute worst thing one could be. When in fact, Judd Nelson’s character from The Breakfast Club has few redeeming characteristics and I miss the baby version of O acutely.
He hasn’t quite gotten around to rejecting the 1200 stuffed animals that reside in his room but I am steeling myself for the possibility. I will miss you Pooh, Camel, Wild Thing, Sock Monkey, Ugly Doll and Snowy Owl… Sob. The end of an era and the beginning of some new stage of development for which I am ill prepared. Are their books on how to do this surly, smart-assed stage well? I am on my way to f-ing this up. HELP!
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now you’ve gone and made me cry into my g-d damned farmer’s chef salad! let me add to your nostalgia? this weekend, we were watching a video of my b-boy so that would make o just over one. he’s walking through our house, making stops at the trash can every so often (remember?).
so take those cuddles when you can! i realized yesterday that nearly the entire day had passed and i hadn’t touched my 6 and a half year-old! how is that possible? he left for school with my husband. i came home from work. he was at karate. we ate dinner and then it was time for bed. ugh!
Karate??? Now that doesn’t sound cuddly. In my O’s hands that’d be just dangerous.
“Stopping to look in the trash can.” LOL. It’s that waste management fetish, way back then!
yes! didn’t he almost “waste manage” bunny?
do i see some green outside that window?
cce:
Can you imagine your MIL 30 years ago? Looking at her sweet little boys, wishing she could stop time?
No, I’m sure she was hoping to fast forward things a little. After all, she tells a story about the Better Half being so hopped up on artificial food coloring that he was actually removing pictures from walls. Sounds precious!
It’s so hard seeing them change & grow into these little people! We’re stuck in the night-light-I-need-3-blankies-and-all-my-favorite-possessions-in-bed stage.