Come, Mommy

Kieran has most of the tricks you’d expect of a baby his age – he totters along, stumbling occasionally, uses 9-10 words with regularity, eats with utensils (except when it’s more fun to finger paint with spaghetti sauce), draws a straight line, and when pressed, throws a pretty decent temper tantrum. However, the child has one thing most his age do not.

Kieran has a throwing arm that is absolutely mean. We keep telling him when his throwing is inappropriate. If he’s lobbing trains, we’ll gently take them from him and give him a ping-pong ball to throw. We ignore thrown food at the dinner table as much as possible. Still, though, we have to be right on top of him at all times, because usually Liam and Casey are on the receiving end.

It’s not a sibling thing, really, it’s just that Liam gets engrossed in his imaginary play and he becomes the perfect target. Then Kieran spies him, or the dog, realizes the toy he is holding would be more fun thrown, and boom! All heck breaks loose. Which is why Kieran persists in throwing things; he’s in it for the reaction. In the last week Liam got a bruised forehead when a metal Percy was thrown at him from a distance of four feet or so, and poor Casey got hit right between the eyes with a Weeble. It’s dangerous, and it amuses Kieran to no end to see Liam or Casey yelp and run away. It’s not a fun phase that we’re going through with all this throwing, but like any phase, it won’t last forever (we hope!), and it is sometimes funny:

Kieran was in his highchair eating breakfast. More of it was ending up on the floor, and then into Casey’s tummy than was going in Kieran’s mouth. But  he was in a good mood, and so was the dog:

Me (watching Kieran throw cereal): “Kieran, we eat our food. No throwing.”

Kieran: “No??”

Me: “No.”

Kieran picks up some fruit and dangles it over the edge of the highchair, making sure he’s got my attention:

Me: “No throwing, Kiri. Fruit is for Kiri to eat!”

Kiri waves his fruit about:

Me: “No throwing fruit, Mister!

Kieran: “No??”

Me: “No!”

Kieran begins to nibble his fruit; I look away. Silence reigns for a moment, until:

Kieran: “Mama?”

Me: “Yes?”

Kieran (setting up to pitch his pear): “Mama??”

Me: “No throwing.”

Kieran: “No?”

Me: “No.”

Kieran: “Mama? YES!!”

And with that he launched a slice of pear across the kitchen and into the sink. I couldn’t help laughing.

Me (to myself and Casey): “At least he’s cute, and if this keeps up, maybe there’s a college pitching scholarship in his future.”

“Mama says I throw everything, but she is wrong! I would never throw an ear of corn on the cob – it’s too delicious to stop eating!!!”