spynotes ::
  November 25, 2003
Alien invasion

AJ is currently out like a light. I made him go get his haircut this morning. This is probably the thing he hates most in the world. More than being forced to wear his puffy winter coat. More than mittens. More than a diaper rash. More than being forced to watch the Newshour with Jim Lehrer instead of a Little Bear video. More than all of these things, he hates scissors anywhere in the vicinity of his person.

We generally go to this family-friendly barber shop near us that has a kids room where instead of chairs there are carousel horses and race cars. They also have a special waiting room for kids with Disney videos on an endless loop and tons of toy cars to play with. You�d think he�d love going there, but he knows what is up. So instead, I must use bribery to keep him from completely losing his cool. Thus the toy shop across the street from the barber shop is quite good for this purpose.

AJ declined both horse and racecar in favor of clinging to my neck. He screamed and yelled in his usual routine, but he didn�t thrash around quite as much as usual and so actually achieved a relatively even and decent looking cut. He seems to like it too, and spent some time admiring himself in the mirror after we got home. After the ordeal was over, he picked out a purple lollipop from the bin on the counter, said �thank you� without any prompting from me, despite the fact that he was still trying to choke back sobs, and we went to play with the wooden train set in the toy store across the street. The store must be accustomed to such rewards, because they had a big sign on the door saying, NO LOLLIPOPS IN THE STORE!!! AJ agreed to part with his sucker temporarily in favor of a train set that made real train noises and had flashing lights. I was able to do some hypothetical Christmas shopping before we left and headed to the neighborhood Greek diner for lunch. AJ was an absolute saint at the restaurant. He asked the waitress for �pancakes, please� and thanked her when she brought them and thanked me for taking him out to lunch afterwards. He did not spill or throw a single thing, not even by accident. Who was this model child? I think perhaps the AJ of the last couple of weeks has been kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a look-alike model. It�s so nice to see my boy happy again.

The Thanksgiving cookathon is about to begin. I had better get some dissertation time in before I get stuck in the kitchen.

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