My son and I are in the middle of 6 days without daddy. The first day would have been a pre-school day for Alberto except that he was sick. Tomorrow I'm really hoping the green snot clears and I can drop him off at school. So far I've found his pre-school experience quite addicting, withdrawl brutal.

The day was going pretty well. I had planned a special breakfast of cinnamon rolls and sausages. Alberto was enamored by the tongs I was planning to use for cooking the sausages, so I let him play with them and used another pair. When we sat down to eat he decided he was up for the challenge of eating sausages with the tongs. Very interesting as an experiment in dexterity. After that got old he decided the sausages were bones and he was a dog. Try as he might he could not convince me to join in.

We played outside, inside, upsidedown. Before lunch our neighbor kids came over (4 girls, 3-8 years old) and things got a little rowdy. In the chaos of trying to finish lunch prep, the girls leaving the house, and a minor bump on the head my son started melting down and whining. I knew food would solve quite a bit of the meltdown so I was trying to push through to that goal. After reaching the edge of sanity and leaping over it I heard myself shout "STOP!" and then say "Just because you're hungry, your friends just left and you bumped your head doesn't mean you get to whine like crazy!" I should have just burst out laughing right then because it was so ridiculous to say this to a 3.5 year old. He, of course, burst into tears.

We were able to talk to each other a little more rationally after we bothed calmed down. "Berto, I'm sorry I yelled at you." "Mommy, I'm sorry I was whining." (I love those words!) We reconnected with a big hug and went to the courtyard to eat lunch.

As I write this I'm remembering the book "Happiest Toddler on the Block." The author lays out a comparison of how youngsters are like neandrethals and that you have to relate to them in a rather primitive way. My scenario would have supplied the perfect example of what not to do that seminar participants could observe and re-enact.