Monday, May 2, 2011

The Singing Face

Seth takes after his Daddy in that he is the boy with the rubber face.  Ever since he was a baby, he has been making BIG faces.  When he was only 7 months old, he invented his own version of "The Cheesy Smile" and would give us a big one whenever we requested it.  Here's a couple pictures of the first time he ever did it:



Well, since then, we've seen many Seth faces.  His most recent one is no exception in cracking us up.  Of course, it has a story (and a couple back stories)...
I think I "baby" Seth a bit more than I did Micah.  Micah has always seemed more mature than his age and it seems that since he had a little brother at only 20 months, he grew up even faster.  Besides their difference in personality and birth order, perhaps part of it is my parenting style has relaxed some.  Example:  On Micah's 2nd birthday, we told him that he was a big boy now and he didn't need his "sucky" to go to sleep anymore.  I didn't even like that he still had it, but we were only giving it to him to fall asleep at that point.
Fast forward to Seth's 2nd birthday and found ourselves in the same spot.  Except Seth was the baby...and much more attached to his "sucky."  More specifically, the "blue sucky."  I just couldn't do it...and I didn't really want to, either.  It was easier to let him have it, so we did, for just a little while longer.
Then on December 8th, almost 4 months after Seth's second birthday, Adam decides (with no warning) that he was taking the "sucky" away.  I was less ready for it than Seth was, but once you go down that road, there's no going back (unless you want to drag it out for another year).  So, we cut him cold turkey.  The way he would ask for it was so sad, almost like he had lost a friend.  I tried to supplement it with his "binkit" (blanket), but it just wasn't the same.  Instead of hearing him cry in bed for half an hour, I decided a better alternative would be if I rocked and sang to him for a little while before laying him down.  It helped, but added a lengthy amount of time to the already long bedtime ritual.  It started out with one song, then he started requesting more.  The way he would ask was irresistible:  "Mommy, do LaLu?"  C'mon people!  Who's gonna say "no" to that?  The songlist went from just "Lalalu" and grew to include "Baby Mine," "Big Moon," and "Jesus Loves Me."
Lately, it's become more obvious than normal that he doesn't just want me to sing to him, but he just wants to stay up later.  A little more than a month ago, he started squirming and trying to tickle me and holding on to the crib while I was rocking so that we would come to an abrupt halt, etc.  During this time, we has sitting up in my lap, facing me, with his head (supposed to be) on my chest.  To cut down on the goofing off, I moved him to where he was cradled in my arms like a baby.  There was nothing for him to grab this way and I could control his little limbs better.  This left  him with little option...except for his rubber face.  In a last ditch effort, he decided the only thing he had left to do was make me laugh in the middle of the lullabies.  I looked down into his sweet little face to see this expression: 


That picture is obviously a re-creation of that first night, because we can now tell him, "Seth, do the singing face," and this is what he does.  Just put yourself in my shoes.  Imagine singing to your (not-so)small child and looking down, expecting to him half asleep...only to see this.

Needless to say, we've cut down on the singing time...I think he may have been using it for his advantage.

1 comment:

  1. Have I mentioned I love your children? This little dude kills me.
    I know what you mean about the babying the littler one. Mae gets away with far more than Josiah did. I blame it partly on Daddy. When she was 18 months old I swatted her hand for touching an outlet. Cameron flipped! "She's a baby! You can't do that!" I reminded him that Josiah got the outlet hand swat treatment at age 10 months (only because he was mobile). ;)

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