Stop on red, right? - 7/3/07

Today was a good day. Two days in a row and Kyle was only in time-out once! Unfortunately, his teeth made pretty solid contact with Grant's arm the one time he bit him, but Grant would probably get confused if there wasn't some sort of souvenir on his arm all the time.

We met Julie and Matthew at the mall for our morning walk today. I can't walk fast because of my knee, but we stroll for over an hour; sometimes we stop and the kids play. This morning there was quite a wild little banshee girl who almost took Kyle's head off when she was jumping around. In fact she just about injured all three boys in various ways so Julie and I decided that since her mom or nanny was too busy on the cell phone to worry about the fact that their little firestarter (I'm predicting the future) was out of control, we'd get back to our walk.

At what age can kids grasp the concept of red light / green light? Kyle wants the van to be moving all the time and when it slows down or, heaven forbid, stops, I hear, "Mommy. Go. Mommy. Go. Mommy. Go." at least 12 times. I explain that we stop on the red light and can only go when the light is green. Keep in mind I'm not sure he's totally got his colors down so I'm reaching here. I'm telling you, this is driving me nuts. It is nonstop. I found myself today mapping out the route that had the least traffic lights to try to minimize this. How sad is that? I think part of the problem is that in Kyle's mind, what he's doing is working.

How am I supposed to explain the concepts to a less-than-two-year-old when there are so many variations? Honey, we stop when the light turns red and can only go when it turns green. Except we can take a right on red after coming to a complete stop so in that situation disregard the rule. Oh, and when we're in a left turn lane, all the lights can be red except the little green arrow in which case we can go. All the lights in front of you that I normally tell you to look at can be red and we will still go (just like you want to). Oh and don't forget when the traffic light is malfunctioning and blinking red... then we actually go through it (after stopping completely and listening to you demand that we go).

Before I had kids I had no idea that I would spend so much time thinking of something so mundane. Of course I also had no idea how these little people whom I adore, whose curiousity I find fascinating, whose determination is often endearing can drive me absolutely nuts. On a more mundane note, that's an odd phrase as are its variations... drive me nuts, drive me batty, drive me ape sh$% (my late dad's personal fave).

If you think about it, you just fill in a noun of your choice at the end of the phrase - drive me . I think I'll try my own variations over the coming days.
* If I hear 'Go' one more time it's going to drive me bridge pylon.
* The dogs are driving me paintbrush.
* The neighbor's singing is driving me frog guts.
* Dave is driving me candle wax.

Dear reader, you really must try this as it's quite therapeutic.

Yes, these are actually things that go through my head. At least I'm never bored, right?

Enjoy your night!
Mary Jo