So I’m getting my 2 year old, Xavier, ready for nap. It isn’t a complicated procedure, really, it’s routine. We come home most days from dropping Ciárán off at pre-school, go to the bathroom, get the diaper on, and head upstairs for story and then nap.
Today he protested about pretty much everything from opening the door to going to the bathroom to the mere existence of pants (let alone them being on or off his body). What I wanted to do was simply pick him up and drop him in his crib without so much as even getting his diaper on.
Instead, I placed him on the toilet, and pointed at him saying “Fine. Don’t laugh.” (In all fairness, I probably yelled it at him.)
His response? He pointed at me and told me not to laugh. He was mad. This wasn’t playful “Ha ha, don’t laugh!” but instead more along the lines of “Don’t tell me what to do!”
Patience.
I didn’t move. I closed my eyes, counted to 10, and as I slowly opened one eye I saw him sitting there with a finger pointed at me and a stern look on his face. “Don’t laugh,” he yelled again.
I closed my eyes. This time I purposefully half opened the other eye.
He had his finger pointed at me and commanded me again to not laugh.
On cue I switched eyes. One open, one closed. He again pointed at me and sternly said “Don’t laugh!” I once again alternated one eye open, the other closed.
I don’t know what prompted me to do this. Instinct perhaps, or the desire to amuse myself at the expense of my toddler’s anger. Whatever the cause, the result was a toddler that said “Don’t laugh” with more giggle and less hate in his voice.
With each successive “Don’t laugh” and subsequent eye switch, Xavier gets more and more amused. Soon he starts outright laughing. Eventually he’s laughing so hard he gives himself the hiccoughs. Then those hiccoughs very rapidly escalate into something more guttural and his torso starts convulsing.
Opening both eyes I smile and ask if he’s doing alright. He can barely get any words out. I’m a little worried, but the situation quickly deescalates and he is his normal self, only with a mild case of the hiccoughs.
And he’s smiling.