Baby Toy Battles

After a truly exhausting Saturday, I woke up this morning an hour early completely unrefreshed. You ask, "Why did you get up an hour early if you were so tired?" I was woken up by the blood curling scream of my baby. I honestly thought he had lost an appendage. I dragged my poor uncooperative body to an upright position and yelled for Kenny to tell me what was going on. Apparently the dispute was over this toy.
That's right....a baby toy. My 4.75 year old wanted to play with it. So he exerted his perceived big brother right to confiscate all items Nathan has any minuet interest in. I tried the old "you-are-a-big-boy-and-get-cool-big-boy-toys line. Didn't work. I tried reasoning with him- which was as successful as reasoning with a rock. I even tried a little shame (It's a baby toy and you don't want to be a baby.) I feel a little guilty about that one, but in my defense I was REALLY tired! Anyway, it didn't work. Kenny was convinced he was going to die on the spot if he could not push those large, plastic buttons and make an animal pop up. So, I promised him that when Nathan took a nap , he could have sole custody of the blessed toy.

He accepted this, but with a condition. He reserved all rights to making playing with the toy until nap time miserable. He went and sat right next to Nathan and pretended to touch it. He didn't actually touch, but he was pretty close. Of course, being two and unable to effectively communicate in any other language than scream-bloody-murder, he let out an ear piercing scream. I then asked Kenny to please stop pretending to touch the toy. This worked long enough for me to crawl back into bed with the hopes that I could still get in another 20 minutes. Then the screams returned, accompanied by the word no repeated several times.

Apparently, Nathan now perceived Kenny as a threat if he moved anywhere within a 2 foot radius of the toy. Kenny realized this and took full advantage of his brother's paranoia. I (again) dragged myself upright, and this time, out of bed. I tried to reason with Nathan and tell him Kenny was not going to take his toy and that his screams were threating to burst my ear drum. I got the same rock effect as before.

So I resorted to my final negotiation tactic. I told them I would make breakfast. The toy was quickly forgotten. With a heavy heart I gave up on my dream of savoring the remaining ten minutes of my night. I'm not sure why the breakfast thing works because my kiddos don't eat, but I am glad I have such a valuable tool.

On another related note, when I put Nathan down for his nap, I called Kenny into the living room to play with the toy. He was giddy for his chance to play with such a coveted item.


It lasted about two minutes. He told me it was a boring toy for babies. I made him promise to never touch it again. He said he was going to water it so it will grow into a big boy toy. I reasoned with him that while such a technique would make sense to a 4.75 year old, it would not work. He didn't believe me. I forbade him to water any of his toys.

Be prepared for a post about a flooded toy room in the near future.