Kid Amnesiac

To paraphrase Sally Field, “I can’t deny that he likes me. He really, really likes me.

Simon has entered what looks like a classic Oedipal phase. My response to this development is “aaaaaah,” while Matt’s is more “I better watch my back.” It’s not that Simon doesn’t love his Daddy; he clearly does so very much. But at this particular moment he is super in love with me. This attachment manifests itself in his unwillingness to let Matt take him to school without me, his unwillingness to go downstairs in the morning unless I go down, too, his insistence that I sit with him for all his meals, and an increased desire on his part for my undivided attention. This latter point refers not just to other people, but also the phone, reading material, and the computer.

If Matt deigns to talk to me, Simon charmingly says “No talk, Daddy, no!” Sometimes Matt isn’t even allowed to be in the same room as us. “No Daddy. You go back in your room and work right now!” This morning when Simon woke up, I went into his room and found him not quite ready to get up. So I laid down beside him—a perk of the twin-sized bed—for a morning snuggle. After ten minutes or so, Matt came in to check on us and was greeted thusly:

“No daddy. Get out. Get out, Daddy. You go in your room right now.”

In case he was being subtle, he threw in the following as Matt exited the premises:

“Close the door, Daddy!”

It’s not all meanness, though. Several times in the last few weeks Simon has spontaneously leaned in for a kiss. He’ll look my way with a soft smile on his face, fix his glassy dark eyes on me with a loving stare, and say, “Mommy, I need a kiss.” Needless to say, I do my motherly duty and comply.

He’s also taken to enjoying getting and giving back-rubs. I’ve been rubbing his back and face for ages, but it’s only recently that he seems to truly enjoy it and will ask for it. Then, adorably, he will echo me and say “Does that feel good? I’m glad!” while I’m ministering to him. It’s backwards for sure, but I get where he’s going. And he’ll correctly say the same thing when rubbing my or Matt’s back.

I’m not sure how long this phase will last, so I’m doing my best to relish it. Whether it’s another week, another month, or another year, I’ll always look back at this fall as the time when Simon was especially in love with his mama and when the two of us were especially close.