Kids

So what's the story with kids? They're cute as buttons and hell on wheels. Dante is a good kid. He's a great kid, actually! He's smart, he's funny, and he's always been extremely well-behaved. Of course he has his moments but he's never been an embarrassment to bring out in public, nor do we have more than a handful of stories of home-based wars.

Lately, he's pushing his boundaries. It's annoying (to be quite honest) but even I have to admit that he's not obnoxious about it. He tries to argue his point but I have yet to hear a solid, coherent basis for his arguments. He doesn't throw temper tantrums anymore. He's actually sulking less. Essentially, he just...argues.

Take for example something that happened earlier this evening. Adam was telling me what time it was and then converted it to military time...although, incorrectly. He said 9:44 pm was equivalent to 17:44. When I correct him and said it was actually 21:44, he agreed, we laughed, and I thought were ready to move on. Except that Dante decided that this was worth his new found assertiveness and proceeded to argue that it was, indeed, 17:44.

Now with it being bedtime we frequently hear "But it's Friday!" or "My Mom lets me stay up later than this!" or my personal favorite "I'm not making promises but I could maybe take a nap tomorrow." After Adam sent him to bed, he came back downstairs to dig his bionicle out of his jacket. When I asked him if he was going to bed like he was supposed to, he shook his head no. This stuff sends me through the roof quick but I chose to let this be their war. It took two trips of Adam going upstairs to get him to go to bed and I'm not overly convinced that a third trip isn't in the future. Dante, both times, was sitting in bed getting ready to watch some late night cartoon action.

He's getting older. That much is obvious. But man....these phases suck!