Rules

AJ is at the age where he is learning the many rules of life. Such as "no climb table!", "no throw food floor!" and "no touch wheels! only mama touch wheels!" (meaning the knobs on stove). It makes me feel like the day is full of no-no, so I try to phrase things positively, such as "mama thinks it would be a better idea to read a book" rather than do whatever he is doing at the time. However, sometimes the rules of life have to be made clear in the form of a no statement.

AJ is also learning about consequences. Last weekend he enthusiastically tried to wash his daddy's blackberry (an e-mail and cell phone device) to clean it up. He actually managed to turn on the faucet and briefly run the device under the water before Joe caught up to him. From that he learned "No water on blackberry! Spank! Time out!" meaning that he would get both a spank and a time out if he did it again. Then on the way home from a visit to the zoo with his grandparents, AJ was pushing on the back of his Papa's chair with his feet while Papa was driving. Papa jokingly threatened to give him a knuckle sandwich if AJ didn't knock it off. AJ now randomly will say "No feet on chair! Drive! Knuckle San-which!" To make matters more amusing, AJ lowers his voice and says knuckle sandwich in a gruff tone in a pretty good imitation of his Papa. I have a hard time not laughing when I hear it.