rockstar

so far there is much to love about toddlerhood and a lot to laugh about as well.

in addition to his charming vocabulary and endearing just-off-a-horse walk, cruz has been working some typical diva toddler behaviors. 

+ a lot of parenting seems to be about framing situations the right way. when possible and appropriate, we let cruz make choices. we take turns. we encourage him to take ownership and we give ourselves enough time to make this all happen. 

but sometimes it just doesn't work like that.

yesterday we were getting ready for church, running late, and i was in a prickly mood.

cruz likes to help comb his hair. on a regular day, he has one comb, i have the other and we take turns.

but yesterday... wasn't going to happen.

i combed his hair and shouldn't have been surprised when he started hollering at me to give him the comb.

usually when cruz throws a tantrum, i don't react and walk away. (sorry, french moms, i'm not going to abandon my child in the street to teach him a lesson about crying.) (i kid! i kid! french moms probably abandon their children in the louvre or a lavandar field in provence.) 

anyhow, cruz got wise to me.

before i could exit the room, he stomped over to the door, slammed it, trapping me in there with him.

"oh you're going to let me cry it out, huh? how do you like me now, woman?"

+ cruz's favorite things to point out to me are cars, stars, and lights. if he starts finding limos, champagne, and auto-tuned microphones, i'll know things have gone too far.

+ after months of peacefully saying "bye-bye" to his pacifier every morning, cruz wised up to the fact that pacis don't go "bye-bye," because they're still in the crib. now i hide them under blankets while he cries "yasssseeee! yasssseeee!" this morning i was grabbing the blankets when i discovered cruz has a little secret stash of his own: pretzels in the crib.

and as it turns out, cruz is not the only rockstar in the house.

+ while i got ready this morning, cruz hung out in our bedroom, paging through the latest entertainment weekly (naturally). "dada! dada!" he started saying. i peeked back to see what he was looking at:

fair enough, cruz. fair enough.

{one of these guys is adam levine from maroon 5}