Mr Independence
Young Bert has well and truly developed his own views about how the world should be run and one of his central tenets is that under no circumstances should he ever have to wear a hat. However this tenet comes in to conflict with a central tenet of mum and dad’s; that at all times when it is cold outside he should be wearing a hat.
It was a clash of these beliefs that lead to Bert’s first public hissy fit. As far as hissy fits go it wasn’t bad, one big cry as mum put his hat back on for the umpteenth time, but it was, for him, a fierce show of independence. In the end mum won the battle as we strolled around Williamstown. He kept on grizzling every time the hat was jammed back on but with fifteen metres to go to the car he seemed to give in.
‘Ah, victory.’ we thought. How wrong we were - he was merely planning his next stage of attack.
And that came at 2:00 am this morning
For an hour the young man let us know just how happy he was with the way he had been treated. Dad spent most if shuffling from the television to the cot (I really hadn’t planned on watching Australia v Brazil, but made the best of a very bad situation) trying to calm him down. In the end it was mum to the rescue again. She used a brilliant diversionary tactic (”Ooooh, a glass of water. I’ll stop crying for that.”) and peace was restored. We’re just about to go for another walk given it’s a lovely day outside. This time I think I’ll let the Wookie win and hope he lets me sleep tonight.