Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Tiger's World

The floor is shaking. There is a shouting match going on between Madigan and the Tiger within. Then, the cadence of hearty laughter, followed by "No, No, Come!" (I assume Tigger-Hun stepped out of line, momentarily). Madigan is in his crib for, you know, a "nap". Naptime for him has always been a battle, between him and the Tiger inside who won't sleep. I've implemented all sorts of creative techniques, from warm milk to hearty hikes, to try to ease the process and encourage slumber. Today, the boy walked the entire fence line with us to check for breaks in the electric wire, downed trees or broken boards. That's a LONG walk for little legs over rough terrain. Yet, he is none the wearier. Last night we took him for a walk with Valiant dragging him along at a full run. Still, the Tiger War prevailed upon our return. Sigh.

On another, slightly related, note... I've decided to start giving the boy "chores" to help keep him occupied during the daytime, when we're not at the barn doing "man chores". This website gave me some fun ideas and I'll keep you posted on our success!

And here are some Madigan-you-are-so-funny moments from this week:
  1. As we drove by Starbucks, he burst into tears because we forgot to stop. Our new plan of substituting homemade drinks for our weekend Starbucks date may be harder for the boy than for his parents! I don't know if it's the reaction he gets from his fan club (the Starbucks baristas) or the whipped cream (they give it to him in a little cup - so cute) that he's missing the most.
  2. When we were running him around the block last night, he heard some music coming from a neighbor's house. It was barely audible, but the beat caught his attention and he stopped all of us and started dancing right there on the sidewalk! The man loves music.
  3. When he saw the first of the snow this year he ran over and picked some up, then started crying and said, "Hot!". I assured him that it was actually cold and super fun for making snowballs! He quickly caught on and I'll probably regret that idea soon.
  4. He's obsessed with vacuuming. He asks me several times each day to get the vacuum out and usually throws a fit if I decline to acquiesce to his request.
And, what's going on in Declan's world, you ask? Well, he's soundly asleep. Sweet boy.



3 comments:

kmac said...

oh my gosh, I love him.

Gwendolyn said...

You make me laugh and cry at the same time... such precious momentos of memory.

Jeanniebird said...

too funny, to bad you weren't closer he could come over to Auntie Jeannie's and vac until he is wore out. Maybe then he could sleep, sleep, sleep.