Centennial Lakes has children's entertainment every Tuesday and Thursday during the summer, and I found out last Thursday that the performers were the Okee Dokee Brothers! Well, of course we went- as soon as Max found out, he went and posted himself by the door (even though I wasn't planning on leaving for an hour).
I've been feeling like lately Max and I have come to an understanding about boundaries and distance- I don't keep him closely reigned in, and he doesn't go out of my sight... usually. I guess Thursday he decided to test the waters to see if he still had to hold up his end of the bargain. Judging by the way he acted, I may need to rewrite the rules.
"From now on, you must stay within arms reach of your mother, because I'm tired of having to chase you to keep you from taking other kids' food!"
Yeah, I was that mother of that child who's always getting in the way at fun events. For starters, he went and stood in the middle of another family's picnic blanket, begging for french fries. Thankfully, they were sweet and invited him to bring his own food over and join them, which he did willingly!
Then he moved on to another blanket and gathered up all of the toys of some 9-month-old twins. He would have carried them off, I'm sure of it, if I hadn't caught up with him. The kids' nanny wasn't too thrilled with him- she grabbed the toys back and hid them away, and I saw her eying him warily every time he came near them the rest of the afternoon.
I shepherded him back to our own blanket to finish his lunch before the concert started, just as Lucian decided he was hungry. Of course, as soon as I had Lucian under a blanket and myself incapacitated, Max decided to take off for the steps. I helplessly watched him go for a minute, and I saw concerned mothers look around for his guardian as he made his way quickly out of my sight. Thankfully, Lucian took a break so I could go chase after him- and at the top of the stairs I found him chatting with the Okee Dokee Brothers! Oh Maximilian, always the social butterfly.
This escape warranted a time-out in his stroller, which he hated, but when his time was up nothing changed. After the music started, he played with the extension cords connected to the band's amp, he ran off across a bridge in the other direction, he tried to steal a little girl's butterfly net, he stepped over countless blankets/babies/lunches and ran me ragged.
The vast majority of moms were very understanding, and actually thought he was adorable! And the escapes weren't anything too dangerous (except the fact that the amphitheater was surrounded on two sides by water), but I simply wanted my son to behave. Is that too much to ask?
I hate to do it, but next time I'll have to change the consequence from a stroller time-out to simply leaving. He's just not getting the memo yet.
1 comment:
Wow. A Max-Mara relationship will not be possible. I wondered if you were writing about your son or my daughter for the bulk of this post... Lucia Ann, have off - he's all yours. Mara needs a man who will give her all his french fries, let her play with ALL his toys (even the ones she's NOT playing with), let her be the be the center of attention, let her pull the plugs on his amps and don't even think about sharing that butterfly net...
"The vast majority of moms were very understanding, and actually thought he was adorable!" and THAT is why they think they can get away with it...
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