What to do when all you hear is "Mine!"

Just starting this week, my son has had an odd new habit in the mornings.  Whenever it's time to leave for school, right as we're heading out the door he'll grab one of his toys, or maybe a favorite book.  If you try to convince him to leave it at home, he'll just hold onto it more tightly and yell.

Given that the last thing we want to do right before work is defuse a toddler tantrum, my husband and I have been just letting him carry the possession into the car and hold it during the ride to preschool.  Sometimes we can get him to leave it in the car, other times, he's insistent on bringing it inside.

His teacher, the lovely Mrs. B, has also informed us that he's starting to use the words "mine" and "no" a lot more frequently.  This bothers us a little.  He's always been great about sharing with other kids, and he's normally pretty agreeable.  But lately, we've been seeing him act out this way at home, too.

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Schizophrenia is cute on babies.

It is a cold, rainy Saturday morning in February, so my boys and I are happily snuggled inside. (My son is wearing footie-pajamas, which are the most wonderful things, because they package him up into one little fuzzy cuddle-bundle.)

As he runs around the room and plays, he bounces from toy to toy, riffing a quick song on his guitar here, tooling around on his workbench there, climbing up on his spring horse for a quick ride before getting down to a song from his keyboard.

But, even as he jumps from one activity to the next, he does not lose his grip on Mao.

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The enemy of my enemy is my cousin.

This past weekend, as I've mentioned, my parents watched my son for me. Well, they also had my middle sister's two kids, my 3-month-old nephew, and my 2 1/2 year-old niece.

Given as my son is 18-months-old, he is just the perfect age to infuriate my niece. He is neither young enough to be a cute little baby, nor old enough to play at her level. He is also impossible to boss around (which is, sadly, one of the favorite hobbies of 2 1/2 year-olds).

So my parents (their grandparents) spent a good deal of the weekend intervening when my niece find my son irksome. (One oft-used phrase was, "He has parents; you don't need to tell him what to do.")

There is also an element of jealousy too, obviously. My niece was the oldest cousin, and until my son was born a year later, was the sole grandchild. This led too a great surplus of attention. She also has never been in formal childcare, so interaction with other kids has been low. When you add her newborn little brother into the mix, you create the perfect storm for rivalry.

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Breaking News: Giant Baby is still Giant

My son, the 8-pound preemie himself, had his 18-month check-up today. He scaled in at 31.2 pounds weight, 34.5" inches tall, and 51 cm head circumference. He was in the 95th percentile all the way across the board.

Which puts him at roughly the same size as the average 2 1/2 to 3-year-old.

So, it looks like his growth rate is not going to slack off any time soon. Which is cool, because Mommy likes the idea of retiring young to be supported by her professional athlete son.

But, as it turns out, apparently my kid is really smart, too. I'm not especially surprised; I figured he was bright. But they gave him an assessment at his pediatrician's and he scored in the 87th percentile on cognitive development and 95th on motor.

However, now that I've found out my kid is really advanced for his age, it makes me curious how he is doing in other, less easily measured areas of development. So I'm doing some assessing of my own...

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When the problem is YOUR kid...

Just last week I got a call from my husband as he was driving my son home from daycare.

"Well," he said, "there's been another biting incident."

Oh no, I thought, not again.

"He got bitten by one of the little girls in his class."

My first response? "Oh, that's great!"

Now, I'm not sadistic towards my son, nor do I think teethmarks make for attractive body modification. But this was the fifth time the daycare reported my son had been involved in a biting incident...and the first time he was the one bitten.

That, and it had been a good long while (and still has) since he bit anybody, so I was (and still am) hopeful that that phase is largely behind him. And if another kid has to become the biter of the class to take the title from him, well, that's cool, my kid's tough.

Not that I don't feel for the other parents finding out their daughter's a biter. I still remember my son's first biting incident...:cue flashback music:

When we went to pick him up, the teacher informed us there was a write-up of the incident on his daily report (which usually just says things like "He loves the playground!" and "He had three helpings of applesauce!"). But, this day, his report stated this:

"He bit another child during playtime. He was put in time-out for 1 minute, and given a talk about how our teeth are for our food, not hurting our friends. He gave the other child a hug to make-up, and they played nicely the rest of the afternoon."

The kicker? The 1st time biting, when my son had to sit in time-out (only 1 minute, but still) and get a lecture? He was 10 months old. He couldn't even walk yet.

I guess, biting phase-wise, he was just an early bloomer.