26 Months and screaming

If any of you think all I blog about are my boys, you are about right...
There are certain stages of a kids life that are really fun for moms, and others that are less fun. The defiantly throwing food stage- LESS fun,
the squealing and just learning to roll over stage- WAY fun.
The gender differentiation- "I AM NOW BOY" stage- LESS fun.
That's where we are now. Does anyone else think it's weird that boys like blue and girls like pink. If there is a choice to be made, Eirik will always choose the medium blue option. He won't use anything except his blue fork and blue knife. When we paint, he only uses the blue paints.
I never wanted to have guns in the house. So how do boys figure out weapons when we are SO careful about what he watches, where his influences come from and what we talk about? I have never even said the word GUN in front of Eirik, so what does he do? He makes up his own word for gun. "Bout" And for the few weeks before he learned the word "shoot" he said "I bout you" about every 2 seconds on an average day. He learned about swords early on and that's when the dragon fighting stage began. Then he learned about Bows and Arrows (Robin Hood) and then he learned about hunting and protecting things; like princesses. And, these little lessons have led to a full on battle that ensues the moment he wakes up all the way through his dreams in the night. He is all about protecting us from every scary monster, animal, and dragon and using his pretend weapons for any other opportunity that he can imagine. His horses all line up and go to battle and stomp things like scary animals. (He broke the legs off 2 horses this morning by stomping "really really" hard.) I have been the target of many, many, many slayings. We had to take away his swords because it was getting too out of control, but anything at all can be a weapon, like a 3 hole punch for example. I don't think he has ever seen a slingshot, but he figured out how to make one out of this stick he found outside and a string.
It's really hard to play with my son when every activity I suggest always ends up in some sort of shooting match and Mommy doesn't really want to play guns or hunting or shooting, and actually won't play these games. So poor Eirik has felt a bit neglected this week and I'm hoping he'll find a new obsession soon, like paper cutting for example or maybe dress up. :)

Now don't get me wrong. I adore my boys, but can I just borrow someone's daughter for a while so we can do crafts and make fairy's and draw flowers together? I am ashamed to admit, I couldn't help myself this weekend. I bought baby girl clothes at a MOM 2 MOM sale! What for?? I don't know! Just for the day when maybe I get to dress up a little girl in something besides dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!

This picture shows Eirik with his favorite tools. I get really freaked out when he wants to use tools and usually take them away which always causes a tantrum. He usually says something like, "mom, those are very very sharp, I use them very very carefully. Sharp things are very special to me. Tools are my favorite." So I taught him to walk with them points down, made him some board that he can practice using tools on, and I just try not to be too freaked out.

We've been talking a lot about good choices this month. We made his first sticker chart and he got some special horses since he filled it in with my little pony stickers. (he he he). He has started saying, "Mom, make a good choice, make a horsey choice." all the time. I don't know what this means. This morning he said, "Mom, you make a good choice, Make a lion choice, close your eyes and better hide from the berry scary lion choice!" He also loves to say, "I'm too dizzy" to anything that he does not want to do. Naturally, I hear, "I'm too dizzy" all day long.
He finally learned how to open doors- to my dismay. Now he loves to go outside and down the sidewalk by himself. Today I found him 4 doors down the street and he said, "There you are mommy, you got lost!" when I finally caught up to him! What am I going to do with him?
He loves to use keys. I told him that he could use my keys to turn on Joren's swing, so he has been trying to figure that out for a few days. I think he's on to me. I also told him he could use keys to turn on the vacuum. That makes vacuuming take a LONG time with him "turning" it on and off with the keys all the time. ;) He also loves to "drive" the car. He always heads for the front seat first and says, "I'm like Daddy now, I learn to drive now?" "Turn the music up. I love Rock and Roll!"