A Little Warning Would Be Nice

Elliott has a growing obsession with the bird identification book, or in his words, the blue jay book. The book belonged to Katie’s grandmother. She and Elliott have been thumbing through the pages so often that Katie was concerned it might ruin the book and she asked her mom to find a new kid friendly version. Grandma did and Elliott was not fooled. There is after all only one blue jay book. When Katie got Elliott out of his bed this morning, his first words were “blue jay book”.

He loves looking at the birds in the book and memorizing them. If you turn to the appropriate pages he can identify more than a dozen birds ranging from the blue jay, the first one he learned and thus the unofficial name of the book, to the peewee bird, which for some reason makes him laugh.

I think it is wonderful my little boy has a fascination with birds and a desire to learn. But I’m afraid I will always blame the blue jay book for ushering in the “terrible twos”. We have been unable to supply enough bird time to meet Elliott’s insatiable demand. His response to this perceived slight has been unpleasant. We’ve seen his biggest tears and loudest cries.

I picked Elliott up at grandma and grandpa’s the other day and when I got out of my truck I could hear an unhappy Elliott. I wondered what could be wrong as I walked from the driveway to the house. Inside I found the “terrible twos”. Grandpa was worn out from playing the blanket ride game with Elliott and he was taking a well deserved rest. The rest period had obviously exceeded Elliott’s idea of a timeout and he was passionately informing grandpa that the game clock was once again running.

We’ve been forewarned about this challenging period of a toddler’s life. I guess I was caught off guard by the unannounced arrival of this storm. After all, the city of New Orleans is being asked to evacuate today in preparation for Hurricane Gustov, a storm that is several days and a thousand miles or so away. I would have appreciated similar warning for the coming of Hurricane Elliott. I am fairly confident I would not have evacuated, but I would have secured our valuables and boarded the windows.

Oh this too shall pass. I can only hope that since the “terrible twos” arrived four months early, they will graciously adjust their departure accordingly.