Rain, Leaves, and Little Boys ...Things that Fall

Jim has taken to the idea that he is a big boy - bigger by a couple of inches than he is. I know this in 2 ways:

1) He can't quite comfortably reach a normal stair rail, yet he keeps trying out taking the stairs like a big boy. Twice this month he has fallen down the stairs, while I watched in horror. Can you say slow-mo-fall? I can not only say it, I have nightmares about it. The 2nd time he was left with a swollen and scraped nose, because he tried to catch himself while falling. No, no Jim, roll with it baby!

2) He has started head-butting kids that are bigger than him. Especially when they won't share. I would find this somewhat funny, because damn, it works to get that toy! But, I have been the "big kid" that wouldn't share before - that shit HURTS! OW! He'll do it more than once too, if you are dumb enough not to give him what he wants or move quickly out of forehead range. For the initiated, this can lead to pushing the forehead out of reach, thereby landing baby Jim on his butt, hard. Ow!

So, we are dealing with both issues as best we can. We have started teaching Jim to touch lightly the offending person while saying,"No no insert person's name here!". It results in the cutest little "petting" action, where he lightly strokes your arm/hand/foot and gently chides you - unless you don't immediately comply, which results in a fast and furious head butt or a slap (his alternate form of disciplining bad parents). *sigh*

His teachers have been teaching him "not nice" as a method to communicate his frustration. It sounds like an odd combination of "No, no" and "Night, night", so we were glad to have it explained for us in today's report from daycare. We had been having some confusion over why he wanted to go to bed before 8 o'clock. :)

On the stairs training - he won't do the tummy-thing, I've tried. People keep telling me that is the method he should use, but this boy ain't having it. So, I have been teaching him to bump, bump, on his rump to navigate our huge flight of steep stairs. For 3 days now, since his fall at our friend's house, he has successfully bumped his way downstairs whith the help of Mommy. I figure we'll encourage this for quite a while before we allow him to solo... My goal is that he survive it, should he solo without permission.

Boy, oh, boy, my boy.