Today was Day 6 of the TV ban. It is starting to get ugly. He is starting to beg. I ordered a Ni Hao Kai Lan DVD for something for work, and it came in the mail yesterday. I intentionally had not opened it so he would not see it and get upset, but then I opened it today after getting an email from a co-worker asking if I had it, so I wanted to make sure. I tried to keep Vinny from seeing it, but he did anyway.
He desperately wanted to see it and was so sad when he was reminded of it. He got very cranky today. I felt so bad for him, but I had to be strong. He has really been getting to a breaking point today. He keeps pretending to watch fake movies on his toy computer and trying to plan what he watches in the future. Today at the gym, he broke the rules and played video games at the gym. I saw him on the tv screens. He forgets I watch him. He does not forget that he is not supposed to play video games at the gym. I just don't think it is what he should be doing when there is all this stuff to play with, and I don't really like him playing games when I can't monitor him either. He's too young. I threatened to extend the ban if he can't follow the rules.
At least at home, every time he gets to the end of his rope, he figures something out. Today he got out puzzles. He did a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puzzle this morning. Sadly, it had been opened a while ago and was missing a few pieces, but he completed it sans the missing pieces. What was exciting for me was that he gave up on it a year ago when he got it. While he did like puzzles then, that one was too complex for him. But today, he was able to do it. Then he found another one he hadn't opened before, and he did that this evening. He really enjoyed it being complete, and he stared at it and made stories about it. It was very cute.
And then, there was the meltdown this evening. Tiana was trying to go to sleep, and he kept being loud. He decided that he wanted to play in the hall outside her room. When I told him to go in his room, he went... and blasted music. I tell him to close his door, he turns it down. I tell him to turn it off, he argues with me. BLEH.... I eventually get him to turn it off. But then Tiana is crying. So I go in to rock her to sleep. I am just getting her calm, her head buried in my chest, and Vinny comes in and stands behind me and starts making goo goo eyes at her. She sits straight up. AGH. I whisper to him to leave. He speaks at full volume and says, "No, I want to stay here with you." An argument ensues. I finally yell at him, "Leave! And you are being a bad boy! We had an agreement. You be a good boy, I don't extend it. No TV tomorrow night." (All the while still attempting to rock Tiana to sleep- she's teething and it was not an easy night). So what does he do. He stands in the doorway and screams at me, "YES TV!!! I AM WATCHING TV TOMORROW!" Agh!!!!
I stand up to put Tiana down. He takes one look at me and runs into his room. I put her down in her crib, she starts screaming so loud my ears are ringing. I find Vinny cowering on his couch. His butt has never landed in the time out spot so quickly. I made him stay there until Tiana was asleep. He kept her awake... he can wait in time out for her.
By the time I finally got her to sleep 10 minutes later, I was not up for the post-time-out-pow-wow, but I made it through it and got him in the bath. At that point, I was terribly ready to put on my jammies and climb into bed, but still needed to look for Vinny's immunization record for his appointment tomorrow. At that point, I realized my bedroom door was locked. What? No one was in there... (Okay, not no one. The cat was in there. Joy).
"VINNY!" He had tried to tell me he had done it earlier, but I didn't understand what he meant when he said my door was stuck. That was hours ago. (Poor cat). As Marc and I tried our 6th or 7th solution attempt, Vinny calls out from the bathtub, "Where are you going to sleep if you can't get it open?" Marc answered, "In your room." Vinny calls back, "Where am I going to sleep?" My answer? "The bathtub." Apparently he didn't think that was very funny. He started crying. Hahaha. I am so mean. I calmed him down, but honestly, it was kind of funny. It impacted him enough it was one of the first things he told my mom when my parents showed up to rescue us. "Grandma, if Papa didn't get it open, Mommy and Daddy were gonna sleep in my room and make me sleep in the bathroom!"
It has been one of those nights.
Hmmm. That's really too bad. He definitely is too young for video games. And although this is hard for both of you, I'm sure the lack of TV will pay off. I think we never had trouble with TV as kids cause well, mom and dad didn't care and we weren't really obsessed with it. Boys seem to be like that though. Dan always tells me how they used to get a certain number of hours of tv and video games a week.
ReplyDeleteAnd about Vinny's Immunizations record; I guess it could be different cause Vinny is older, and they haven't done this to his yet... but don't they just have it in some internal system now? Cause when I take Bella, they tell me that now the state puts it into a computer record that can be accessed by any doctor or healtcare professional so there is no need for paper records. I don't even have a paper record of her shots 0_o