Who's the boss?

Yes, our dear Connor, who, as many of you know, is a very happy, easy-going spirit by and large, has been developing a definite bossy streak. This is mostly just a 2-year-old being a two-year-old, I think, but the contrast between his usual easy agreeability and this increasingly demanding streak is marked. Jamie has learned well to play on the former quality. When Jamie wants to watch another episode of Spiderman and we tell him it's Connor's turn to pick a show, he quickly asks, "Connor do you want to watch Spiderman?" Invariably Connor happily says, "Yeah, Mayer-man!" Too easy.

But as his desires increase, so too does his ability to inform us of how we should meet them. It started very sweetly at the Children's Museum. When he was done with one area, often just as one of us would find a comfortable place to sit, he would beckon with his fingers pointed downward, European style, and say "Mum-on! Read' to go!" Very cute. But lately at home when he wants us to come somewhere he says forcefully "'Tand up!! 'TAND UP!!!!!" and then tugs on us until we oblige.

Every so often he decides he wants something in particular and woe-unto-us if it can't happen. The other day we got a bunch of their toys out of storage, including a motorized Thomas the Tank Engine. Now, the trains we have had so far are those wooden ones that link together by magnets, so Connor is used to being able to pull the trains apart and reconfigure them at will. Well, this Thomas train has three cars and two of them do not detach. This made Connor utterly, hopelessly, inconsolably sad. And of course, angry at us, because CLEARLY it's all our fault.