“Read to me?” he asked, patting the couch.
“Sure!” I plunked down and took the book from his lap.
“No!” He ripped the book from my hands. “I read it!”
By this he meant he wanted to hold the book and turn the pages himself while I read aloud. I understood this, even welcomed it. Good for him, taking steps toward independent reading.
Still, that didn’t justify the ferocity of his retrieval, and I shot him a look for it: brow raised, chin lowered, glaring over the rim of my glasses — a look that said, “Well!”
… and there he was, shooting a look right back: brow raised, chin lowered, glaring out of the tops of his eye sockets — a look that said, “That’ll show you!”
My wife, witness to this expressional face-off, burst out laughing. So did I. And so did he.
That particular expression is a regular in my repertoire, but I never knew what it looked like from the outside until my son aimed it back at me.
Tags: childhood, expression, father, humor, parenthood, son
December 21, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I was recently accused of my 1 year old son’s rant. As it turn out, someone else close to me discovered while she was giving the other 2 children a lecture that the little one came up along side her and mimicked everything she did. Nevertheless, I am sure I have had my own responses handed back to me.
Watch here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmjJ6-mpLj8