That Viri Is One Bad... Shut Your Mouth!

My kids had an amazing day. Arkaedi Sue was sweet and cute, talking up a storm about everything in one and two word phrases (Thank you, Papa, officially her first three word phrase, is amazing every time I hear it.) And carting around two babies. ("Babies eat? Babies milk? Thank you me.") Arkaedi now has said and done 1.46 trillion of the top 2 trillion cutest things in the history of the world. And these days she's doing it in pink shorts and an Ichiro cap. Perfection. Days like this remind me of how amazing my kids are and how much I love them.

We had a difficult kid at the daycare today. As in, biting kicking fighting difficult. (He was also the first kid under five I've ever heard call someone names. Names like 'poop-head' but still. How does he learn verbal insults? I've dealt with hundreds of kids and never heard that from a 4 year old.) Viri was the defender of the downtrodden. Viri stood up to him, protecting the other kids when he hit or bit. He told me once that he was going to stop him from being mean. "I'm going to tell him stop hitting or throwing things. And if he does it again I'll stop him." Keep in mind this is a kid much older, if only slightly bigger, than Viri.

What impressed me was that A) Viri never resorted to violence himself, short of one exasperated shake of his hands at the boy, and B) Viri seriously did not back down. Once, the boy was charging, screaming at Viri, and Viri planted his back foot and stuck out his arms, letting the boy run into him. It was as though the boy had hit a wall. And Viri didn't hit, or bite, or anything. He just held him there until he backed away. Then, he said, "I'm not going to play with you. I'm a little scared of you." You and me both, son.

It was a long hot day, and tomorrow J begins the three day board exam trial. It was nice to have a sign that we're on the right parenting track. I'm making mistakes, sure, but when push quite literally comes to shove my kids are alright. And that's at 3 and 1. Good job kids.