Stop, You're Encouraging Them!

Xander has a bit of a cough in the aftermath of his cold. This morning he coughed. Nick made a cough, cough. He coughed. Nick coughed. Nick thought he was being very funny. This view was bolstered by his mommy cracking up laughing. I am such a bad mommy when it comes to laughing at things I will be annoyed with later. Nick has maximized the annoyance of his purposeful cough at an alarming rate. This afternoon he began it while I was on the phone with his cousin Bailey, thus ensuring that when she said (according to her mom), "I have an attitude," I said, "Oh, yeah? Wow, really? Okay!" or something along those lines. (She also told me about her fancy dress and white shoes. I caught that part, but not the part where those are for her flower girl role in June. How cute will that be?)

I cracked up at an inopportune time with Xander today, too. I told him I was having my silent time. My first mistake was letting him continue to play his dinosaurs right next to me instead of getting out his Quiet Bag. As I tried to be in the silence, Xander played a game where with every dinosaur, he picked it up and said, "Remember when we were in the dinosaur valley and we saw a _______?" (Fill in the blank with the name of the particular dinosaur.) Then the dinosaur was placed on the coffee table. Repeat.

I paused and whispered, "Xander, remember that Mommy is having silent time? Instead of saying those words out of your mouth out loud, could you just think them inside your head without saying them?" I pointed to my temple. Okay, he agreed to that. Then he began talking just as he was before, only this time with his finger to his temple. (My second mistake was thinking I could explain this concept to an almost-4-year-old and get compliance.) I asked if he could please just think the words instead. "But I am!" he said, frustrated with me. "I am thinking them in my head!" I tried to clarify one more time. Xander said, "Hmmmmmmm," really loudly with a concentration frown on his face, and his finger to his temple. It was the cutest thing I'd seen in a little while. I burst out laughing. (Third mistake.)

The solution, after all my mistakes, was to plug my own ear and continue my silent time while he played quietly but conversationally next to me.