Day 626 - Angry Andrew

Overall, Andrew is a pretty happy-go-lucky kid. He's pretty mischievous and ignores our reprimands, but he very rarely gets angry. Unlike today...

Andrew can entertain himself for a longer period of time than Emma. He can sit with a puzzle, look at a book, or continue to write his memoirs for minutes at a time. Today, Andrew was playing with some building blocks creating a massive, towering structure over six inches tall (that's very large for a baby not to mention any adult Asian...).

Just like when he was younger, Andrew becomes very proud of himself with any accomplishment no matter how slight. He applauded his gigantic building block accomplishment and gave a wide smile. Emma saw what Andrew made. And much like a drunken Mothra destroying Tokyo, Emma kicked and swatted Andrew's 8th Wonder of the World much to the dismay of little Japanese business men running for shelter.

This did not settle well with Andrew. He let out a rather girlish shriek much like the way I scream when I see blood or when girls see me in swimming trunks. But it did not end there! Andrew went up to Emma and bit her on the arm. And now cue the shrieking from both kids...

Biting is not an unusual behavior from toddlers or vampires. From what I've read, kids bite because it's a very strong way for them to protect themselves or display anger. Obviously, you want to prevent this from happening again, so what do you do? I suggested duct tape again, but Lisa just rolled her eyes and bitch-slapped me.

First of all, you want to identify why your child bit someone. In this case, Andrew bit Emma because she destroyed his building blocks. Then you want to make sure you reprimand the child. I initially shouted, "Emma! Look what you made Andrew do!" Then Lisa corrected me and told me we should reprimand Andrew. And then you should give the child a time-out or take away the thing that caused the biting in the first place. The latter was confusing to me because the thing that caused the biting seemed to be Emma's arm; without her arm, the biting never would've happened, right?

Hopefully, Lisa and I will be good enough parents to make sure Andrew doesn't continue with his biting. I think as long as we are firm and resolute with the offending child, we should be just fine. I'm just not too sure how we are going to deal with hickies in the next 10 or 12 years.