Out-laws as In-laws

Friends of ours just had their second baby on Wednesday and they brought Emma to the pediatrician this morning for her newborn checkup. Since the office is across the street, the boys and I walked over to give Emma her gift and her parents some beef stew. (I remember very well the days of coveting any homemade food!) Emma’s older brother Ashton and his grandmother came along and had planned to go to the park, but since it was raining, I invited them to our house during the appointment.

Oh my! Two-year-olds are so busy! They kick, they throw, they yell, they are in constant motion! (and Ashton is well-behaved!) I am a little scared of having two of these creatures running amuck soon… ack!

Jonah has turned our house into a percussion factory. He rattles the chair against the wall. He fwaps his palms on the couch. He shakes the rails of his crib. He slaps his hands on the tile floor. He kicks his legs when laying in his crib. Bam, bam, bam!

Jonah is also undergoing a bit of Coddling Detox. His Abuela loves to coddle him and Jonah loves to be coddled. After a week of this he turns into a whiney little thing who wants to be held and entertained constantly. A few more days, though, and he’ll have it out of his system. At least until the next visit.

And speaking of in-laws, our pastor is preaching a series on marriage and family issues. Yesterday he quoted a study of the most important things to be in agreement on before getting married. One of them was in-laws. “It’s okay if your in-laws are insane, you can deal with that,” he said. “But you both have to be in agreement that they are insane.” This made me laugh and say to Jonathan, “At least we agree that our parents are all insane!” (His Mom: insane. My Dad: insane. My Mom: so darn normal that she must be insane.)

Just before the boys’ afternoon nap today, I asked Jonah if he wanted to listen to some music. He looked over at the stereo. I put in their “Philadelphia Chickens” CD. This always makes them come over, stand up, and fiddle with the volume knob and other stereo controls. While Jonah was fiddling, he reached higher and pressed the power button on the TV for the first time. Since we don’t have cable, the DVD screensaver came on.

And what did Jonah – this kid who has watched maybe ten minutes of television in his life – do next? He looked up, saw the screensaver, immediately sat down, crawled three spaces back, and looked up at the TV with expectant delight.

I laughed so loud and suddenly at this that I made him cry.

Comments

[The Grandfather]

First, I take GREAT exception to the insane grandfather assessment. Immature, maybe, but at least a couple of steps this side of insane.
Second, Jonah has been trying to watch a football game since August and we are running out os season.......give the boy a break.