I took the last week off from Isilon to spend it with my family. My brother-in-law and sister were in town for the week with their three boys, Andrey, Matthew, and Nathan. Katrina came in for two days, mom & dad were here for the week, and Zack took a few days off work. It was a great week of reunion and fun.
The highlight was having lots of time to spend with Jerry. Jerry has bonded strongly with me and I found myself being pulled in one direction or another - he is really beginning to assert himself and exercise his power over me. As expected, this leads to a natural clash of wills. I've had some great examples of that:
The comb: I didn't want Jerry to put a comb in his mouth. He indicated he wanted to play with the comb, so I handed it to him - it immediately went in the mouth. I took it out, told him not to put it in his mouth, and gave it back. Boom! In the mouth. This repeated 2 or 3 times until I finally put the comb in my back pocket. Jerry was upset but after I had him calmed down I brought out the comb again. He indicated that it wasn't supposed to go in his mouth and held it tightly the rest of the evening - without it going in his mouth.
The mixer: We went to Fred Meyer on Sunday and Jerry got 3 new matchbox cars! One of them happened to be a cement mixer. I didn't realize that the mixer apparatus easily comes off and is just right for a young boy's mouth. Jerry demonstrated this to me very quickly. Of course, I didn't want the mixer in Jerry's mouth. This scenario has continued to play itself out over several days - Jerry typically shows me when the mixer is in his mouth; I promptly go to remove the mixer but he often does it for me.
He has had a cold the last few days and woke up with a fever on Tuesday morning. Tuesday night I spent holding him and laying with him, so I was _very_ tired - which means I couldn't play with him much at all last night (which makes me feel sad, just thinking about it.)
This darn thing called "work" keeps me from spending time with my son!