Second Boy

I'm always surprised at what my second son catches on to.  He seems to take in a lot of information, process it, and then attempt to implicate it in a no-nonsense approach.  I'm not even sure what I mean by that, precisely, I just know that it's true.

Despite the fact that we don't let our children watch a lot of inappropriate videos there are always things that slip through.  For instance, in the Disney version of 'Hercules' the characters use the phrase "O my gods" as a witty pun for those who are paying attention.  After watching this video once or twice he started to use the phrase and, although I shouldn't have been, I was a little surprised.  I had to do some quick stepping to talk about how words always mean something even when they don't seem to mean anything and how we need to be responsible and respectful about the words we use.  Thus, we had to come up with an 'acceptable' phrase that he was allowed to use to describe astonishment.  I think I threw out "Goodness gracious" and "Oh my gosh" and "Oh my goodness" as alternatives.  Since the first few thwarted efforts he seems to be weighing his words more carefully.  For now.

Despite the fact that he's never been around a lot of kids for long periods of time, he seems to already grasp the idea that his brother is 'different.'  While watching Boy One acting in signature fashion one day, Boy Two remarked "He always does that.  I don't do that."  Huh, so he noticed.  Boy Two has also been trying to correct Boy One's speech by pronouncing words more clearly for him and restating things that he said.  He reminds his brother "Use your words" and acts very protective of him in situations where he senses that Boy One is overwhelmed or doesn't understand directions.  I'm curious to see how the siblings will relate to each other as they age.  But I'm pleased with his early sensitivity.

I'm afraid Boy Two has an Oedipal complex.  I understand that many little boys do, but it seems especially pronounced in this one.  He's always telling me how pretty I am, how much he likes whatever I'm wearing that day, is giving me kisses, etc.  And then he dismisses Daddy completely not minding when he's out of town and, while playing Wii games, is focused on destroying Daddy instead of seeing him as an ally, like his brother does. Hmm.

He also finds ways to recreate things that make an impression on him.  After visiting Wildlife Safari earlier this year he spent a morning in his room this week pairing similar animals together at various 'stops' around the table, and made a line of cars that drove around the view said beings.  Huh.
Along the same lines, he was impressed by Swiss Family Robinson and recreated the climactic last scene of the family fighting the pirates.  To do this, he used some LEGO rowboats, parked them at the bottom of the air conditioner, and figured out how to attached the LEGO pirates (with their swords) to the slats in the air conditioner to show them 'climbing' the 'cliff face.'  At the top of the air conditioner was the LEGO family (Robin Hood characters), their muskets, two palm trees with 'coconut bombs,' and the pet monkey.  I have to say, I was impressed. (Picture to come.....later.)

More observations to come, I'm sure.